Billions wasted on asylum hotels due to ‘failed, chaotic’ Home Office system

Billions wasted on asylum hotels due to ‘failed, chaotic’ Home Office system



Posted by theipaper

12 comments

  1. The [Home Office](https://inews.co.uk/topic/home-office?srsltid=AfmBOoqWenjDePQL914MjnrlxIoyHMyoHAJK5AnqZSmob9R_ZAdH16Km&ico=in-line_link) has squandered billions on [asylum seeker](https://inews.co.uk/topic/asylum-seekers-2?srsltid=AfmBOooMFhRiTyWlFJ6ubV_k3uQPhBZ77bpj9LbyBHhx1ed72ec5-UwH&ico=in-line_link) accommodation due to a lack of long-term strategy and a “chaotic” response to the issue, according to [a report by](https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/49900/documents/268016/default/)[ ](https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/49900/documents/268016/default/)[MPs](https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/49900/documents/268016/default/).

    The Home Affairs Committee said estimated costs of 10-year accommodation contracts for 2019-29 have blown out from £4.5bn to £15.3bn, after a “dramatic increase” in demand.

    It also said two accommodation providers owe millions to the Home Office in excess profits, but the department had not yet recouped the money and only began the process to do so last year.

    “This money should be supporting the delivery of public services, not sitting in the bank accounts of private businesses,” it said.

    The Government has promised to [end the housing of asylum seekers in hotels](https://inews.co.uk/news/options-move-asylum-seekers-hotels-what-could-wrong-3987529?srsltid=AfmBOooQwlPs_MnIWL08huz5ysFgGsoowTn9ms95dNpJD_ktvsWOV7VS&ico=in-line_link) by 2029 amid mounting pressure over rising costs and a backlash in local communities.

    The report pointed out that break clauses in 2026 and the end of the contracts in 2029 offer the Home Office “an opportunity to draw a line under the [current failed, chaotic and expensive system](https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/ways-home-office-failed-on-immigration-3996486?ico=in-line_link) and move to a model that is more effective and offers value for money”.

    But the report also warned a promise to appeal to popular opinion [without a clear plan for alternative accommodation](https://inews.co.uk/news/asylum-seeker-hotel-closing-dont-know-where-im-going-4002062?ico=in-line_link) risks “under-delivery and consequently undermining public trust still further”.

  3. lets not forget these were contracts drawn up **whilst the conservatives were in power** not the current government.

  4. > A series of failures by the Home Office allowed the estimated cost of the ten-year asylum accommodation contracts to soar from £4.5bn to £15.3bn

    For context, £15.3bn is £409 for every single taxpayer in the UK. And this is *only* the accommodation costs.

    There’s also the cash subsistence support they get, processing and admin (aka an army of civil servants in our asylum departments and their gold-plated pensions), legal aid, judicial reviews, healthcare, education, enforcement and border security, aid, crime and policing, translation services, foregone tax revenue from illegal working…

    The list of costs goes on and on and this is just one small aspect.

  5. Government policy ill-thought out, without any long-term planning, chaotic and horribly over budget? I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t read it in the I. And anywhere else that has ever down any reporting on government contracts ever since the dawn of time.

  6. Gee whizz THANKS CONSERVATIVES!

    All the tories who defected to reform are also included in this

  7. All this blame the tories or blame labour. The two parties are one and the same

  8. The Tories had a lot of dumb policies but this has to be one of the biggest grifts, especially when they knew that they wouldn’t be the ones who had to deal with the consequences.

  9. And from 2025/26, the gov is forecast to spend £316.1 billion on social security…

  10. Yet we were told illegal immigrants aren’t the problem. Yes they are just as much as the Home Office is.

  11. The BBC said we’re funding 103,000 people. Quite the number.

  12. It’s not ‘wasted’ it’s corruption on the same scale as we saw during Covid.

    This is literally a group of individuals blatantly robbing the country blind and getting away with it, because they can.

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