Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 15
15
Rejected
Home Office significantly behind targets for reducing costly asylum seeker hotel accommodation.
Conclusion
In 2022–23, the Home Office spent £2.3 billion on hotels to accommodate people waiting for a decision on their asylum claim and in April 2023, there were 48,000 people waiting for a decision in hotels.39 In his statement to the House on 13 December 2022, the Prime Minister said that the Home Office would end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.40 An early version of the business case for the Programme expected the Home Office to find 500 new beds in local communities every week and stop using hotels by December 2023.41 The Home Office later revised this to 350 beds a week but, in the year to the end of April 2023, it found on average just 48 new beds a week.42 When we took evidence in July 2023 the Home Office told us that it was then finding more than 48 beds a week but was not close to 350 a week on a regular basis.43
Government Response Summary
The government rejects the committee's implied criticism regarding hotel usage and bed provision, detailing a plan to reform asylum accommodation, reduce reliance on hotels by closing over 50 by January 2024, and continually review modelling assumptions.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
3.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 3.2 The Home Office has always been clear that the use of hotels as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers was a short-term measure to ensure that the department met its statutory obligation to accommodate asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute, during a period of unprecedented numbers of small boat arrivals. 3.3 In line with the Prime Minister’s comprehensive ten-point plan (13 December 2022) to tackle illegal migration, a clear plan and range of measures have been implemented to reform the management of the asylum accommodation estate. This includes optimising the use of existing hotels and increasing the number of people room sharing, growing the amount of dispersed accommodation available and delivering alternative forms of accommodation sites. As a result of these actions, the department has now begun to reduce reliance on hotel accommodation and has plans in place to close over 50 hotels before the end of January 2024. Whilst modelling asylum and accommodation demand is complex and inherently uncertain, the Home Office will continue to keep modelling assumptions and estimates under regular review to ensure that accommodation estate capacity remains sufficient for future levels of demand, under a range of different planning scenarios.