Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 35
35
Acknowledged
Home Office failed to achieve equitable asylum distribution targets, lacking credible plan
Conclusion
The Home Office has failed to achieve its targets for an equitable distribution of asylum seekers. Asylum accommodation is still heavily concentrated in particular areas, often areas of high deprivation. Many local authorities do not have faith that the department will achieve a fair and equitable distribution of accommodation. The Home Office has failed to ensure providers deliver in line with its plans—something that should have been considered when the contracts were set up—and has not succeeded in allaying concerns that providers are procuring on the basis of cost, rather than equity. We recognise that there are substantial barriers to achieving the plans in some areas, due to the broader failure of house building rates and access to services to keep pace with population growth, but we have seen no evidence that the Home Office has a credible plan for meeting its targets to make the distribution of asylum accommodation more equitable. (Conclusion, Paragraph 154)
Government Response Summary
The Home Office states its commitment to fair distribution and is reviewing its indexing tool for capacity and impact. It has National Asylum Allocation Plans and a transformation programme to reduce reliance on contingency accommodation and restore a sustainable dispersal model, despite rejecting a specific recommendation about the indexing tool in a related response.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Home Office is committed to ensuring that decisions on the distribution of asylum seekers and the identification of contingency accommodation sites are fair, evidence-based, and transparent. Dispersal Accommodation is being managed via the National Asylum Allocation Plans and Dispersed Accommodation Property Adjudication Process. We are also reviewing and updating the indexing tool to provide more accurate picture of capacity and impact across regions. Monthly place-based approach meetings provide a forum for local authorities and partners to align on dispersal planning and support cohesive delivery, informed by community-specific insights to reduce risk and improve outcomes. The Home Office agrees it needs to account for contingency accommodation in our overall accommodation planning. The department oversees National Allocation Plans which set out a Dispersed Accommodation target scenario. If met, would eliminate the need for Contingency Accommodation across the estate. We also provide data to Migration Partnership and councils that includes all asylum accommodation in each region. We therefore do not agree the recommendation to account for Contingency Accommodation directly in these plans, as doing so would further limit our ability to increase Dispersal Accommodation in LAs with existing Contingency Accommodation. This would risk limiting our ability to procure the levels of Dispersal Accommodation required to exit Contingency Accommodation. We require our accommodation providers to take account of existing Dispersal Accommodation to ensure alignment with the asylum accommodation plans when proposing any new sites, helping to prevent disproportionate concentration and maintain equity across the estate. In parallel, we are implementing a structured hotel exit plan that prioritises a variety of factors to ensure decisions are rational and aligned with strategic objectives. This work forms part of the wider transformation programme to reduce reliance on contingency accommodation and restore a sustainable dispersal model, balancing national priorities with local sensitivities.