Recommendation 15

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