Government recovers £74m from asylum hotel firms

According to the BBC, the government has recovered £74 million from overpaid profits earned by businesses providing asylum services. Following a review of employees, the Home Office said it had recouped the money after Labour took power last year. MPs had chastised ministers for failing to coordinate the day-to-day administration of the contracts. However, the amount recouped represents only a small part of the total cost of asylum care.

According to Home Office results, the total cost was £22. 1bn in 24/25, an average of about £5. 77m per day. That means the sum was less than the government's accommodation bill for a fortnight. Accommodation providers had already told Parliament that they would be returning some funds to the government under the terms of their contracts. Since they were first established, the taxpayers of the contracts have significantly increased. The recovery was welcome, according to Dame Karen Bradley, the Conservative chair of the home affairs select committee, but it was only a first step.This is just a small part of the many billions that the agreements have and will cost.

The government must now lay out a long-term strategy for how it will provide a cost-effective and resilient asylum system.

Ministers have promised to reduce the use of asylum hotels until the next general election, and Prime Minister Theresa May has stated that he would like to postpone the deadline. However, the Home Office has also attempted to bring down the immediate costs of hotels and other forms of accommodation, such as private flats. The 2024/25 costs were down from the previous year, when accommodation cost £3 billion – or £8. 3m per day. As a result of room sharing and cheaper accommodation being used, a large part of it was down to lowering the average nightly cost per person. Ministers are also planning to house asylum seekers in alternative locations, such as military bases.

This government inherited asylum hotel contracts that were not providing good value for taxpayers,

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said.

We've already saved £700 million in hotel expenses. Now we're recouping millions more in excess revenue. And we will have closed every asylum hotel by the time of this session. The home office was strongly chastised by the home affairs committee for its treatment of asylum seekers last month. According to MPs on the committee, the government had

squandered

billions of pounds in taxpayer funds. They also accused the Home Office of underutilizing programs to recover excess funds earned by accommodation providers. In certain employment, there are break clauses that will allow ministers to stop using any accommodation in 2026. Last week, the home secretary told the BBC that all options were on the table and that she would investigate the legal issues

carefully.

The only way to solve this crisis is to eliminate the use of hotels completely,

Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said.

The Home office is spending £5. These savings will be gone in just 12 days, owing to 77 million dollars per day on asylum hotels.

The truth is that the Labour government is allowing more illegal immigrants in hotels than at the election, and the first nine months of this year have been the worst in history for illegal immigrants crossing the Channel.