What are the government’s options on asylum seeker accommodation?

Where to resettle refugees has become one of the hottest political debates since last year’s general election.

Ministers are evaluating Accommodates 900 men They are trying to expand the use of military sites as alternatives to hotels, at Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough army training camp in East Sussex.

Small boat crossings reached near-record levels and MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee say the Home Office is wasting billions of pounds taxpayers’ money spent on asylum accommodation.

The government’s estimated cost of 10-year asylum accommodation contracts has more than tripled from £4.5bn to £15.3bn.

Ministers at the Home Office believe this problem can ultimately only be solved by increasing deportations of unsuccessful asylum seekers and discouraging people from arriving on small boats in the first place.

But while it tries to implement policies to achieve these goals, the Home Office still needs to find somewhere to stay for tens of thousands of people seeking asylum.

When people arrive in the UK across the English Channel on small boats, they are usually sent to a processing center in Manston, Kent.

The site is located on the former RAF Manston base and was opened by the Home Office in February 2022 in response to increasing numbers of arrivals.

Migrants are supposed to be held there 24 hours a day while authorities conduct security and identity checks, but overcrowding sometimes means people are forced to stay in the area for weeks.

By late 2022, thousands of migrants were housed in tents in Manston, leading to overcrowding and diseases including diphtheria.

A Home Office investigation into conditions at Manston is currently ongoing.

The department is also seeking planning approval to improve the site and use it to process asylum seekers until the 2030s.

After leaving Manston, asylum seekers are sent to initial accommodation provided by the Home Office, while authorities decide whether they are eligible for further support.

These are supposed to be centers run by specialist immigration assistance staff, but many asylum seekers are instead sent immediately to hotels or hostels.

There are 1,750 places available for first stay and the latest government data shows 1,665 of these places were occupied in June.

Most asylum seekers will then be sent to long-term accommodation where they will stay while their asylum claims are processed.

According to the contracts signed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, asylum seekers must be accommodated in so-called distribution shelters.

These are self-catering properties within communities and are often local flats or multi-occupation houses (HMOs), a type of rental accommodation where at least three people share the use of bathrooms and kitchens.

The average cost of housing an asylum seeker in dispersed accommodation is £23.25 per night, making it by far the cheapest option.

In 2019, the government signed 10-year contracts with three companies – Serco, Mears and Clearsprings – and tasked them with finding properties that could be used for distribution.

But such accommodation has been in short supply since the number of small boat sailings began to increase significantly in 2022.

Finding more of these properties has become a major priority for former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, and the latest government data shows 66,234 people were in dismantled accommodation in June; This corresponds to approximately two-thirds of the total number of refugees hosted.

But the three companies tasked with finding these properties can make bigger profits than other types of accommodation, and the contracts drawn up by the Home Office do not include any penalties for the companies if they fail to meet their targets.

Dispersal regulations can affect local housing markets by effectively removing flats or HMOs from the general supply; The Home Office accepts this will cause frustration in communities.

Some concerns have been expressed that protests targeting such accommodation may be difficult to control by police.

Hotels were intended to be used only as a temporary option when there was a temporary shortage of other accommodations.

But increasing numbers of migrants crossing the Channel on small boats means hotels are becoming a regular, expensive and highly controversial feature of the UK’s refugee accommodation system.

These led to increased costs for taxpayers and huge profits for the three companies providing accommodation.

The average cost of an asylum seeker staying in a hotel is £144.98 per night, more than six times the price of dispersed accommodation.

One of the reasons why hotels are much more expensive than other accommodations is that the refugees housed there are also provided with food.

According to the contracts prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, payments continue to be made to service providers even if the rooms are empty.

Asylum hotel use peaked in September 2023, when 56,042 people were housed under the Conservatives.

Latest government statistics show the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels at the end of June was 32,059; This number is well below the peak, but 8% higher than when Labor came to power.

The Home Office eliminated the need to consult local authorities on hotel use in 2020 and became a lightning rod for protests.

Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by 2029, but achieving this target will be difficult.

Both the Conservative and Labor governments have attempted to use larger areas to accommodate refugees.

Hundreds of asylum seekers could be resettled in disused military sites as part of efforts to fulfill the Prime Minister’s promise to end hotel use.

Ministers hope to move asylum seekers to sites in Inverness and East Sussex by the end of next monthDiscussions are ongoing between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense about other potential locations.

The Home Affairs Select Committee said large areas like this would not allow the government to reduce the costs of refugee accommodation.

The idea is also likely to be highly controversial in the local communities from which the sites were chosen, but the Home Office hopes the military sites could act as a deterrent to people considering crossing the Channel.

Unused military lands have been allocated for housing construction in the past, but Plans to build on these sites went awry multiple times.

The government stated that other unused areas such as empty skyscrapers, student accommodation and industrial sites could also be used to accommodate refugees.

The government’s contracts with Serco, Mears and Clearsprings run until 2029 but there are interim clauses that the government could introduce in March next year.

Interior Ministry ministers wanted to introduce interim clauses in previous contracts, but the ministry had not left itself enough time to plan an alternative accommodation system.

The housing department is working with local councils to explore what this alternative system could look like.

But some in the Home Office do not believe an alternative will be ready by March, and as recently as May it became clear there were no plans to trigger interim provisions next year.

The Home Office needs to save £1bn on shelter costs by 2029 or it may have to make cuts in other areas of its budget.