Labour’s asylum plan might result in hovering rents and homelessness | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Labour’s asylum ‘amnesty’ will drive up lease costs for households struggling to discover a dwelling, a scathing report has revealed.

The Home Office has vowed to cease housing asylum seekers in resorts.

But they’ve additionally refused to make use of large-scale lodging websites, insisting they are going to course of extra claims and shift migrants into “dispersal accommodation”.

This will drive up lease costs and improve homelessness, the Public Accounts Committee has warned.

The admission is available in a surprising report which additionally revealed the Home Office – beneath the Conservatives – splurged £15.4 million on a derelict jail to accommodate 1,400 asylum seekers – solely to later abandon the plans as a result of they had been unworkable.

The cross-party committee mentioned the Government physique ignored knowledgeable recommendation out there on the time throughout its bid to purchase former HMP Northeye in efforts to safe 1,400 mattress areas, and bypassed processes to guard public cash.

Committee chairman, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, mentioned: “Northeye was one of a series of failed Home Office acquisitions for large asylum accommodation sites, totalling a cost to the public purse of almost £100 million of taxpayers’ money.

“Treasury guidelines for safeguarding public cash are there for a cause and will solely be overridden in excessive circumstances. This case clearly demonstrates why these safeguards ought to usually be adopted.”

He added: “The Home Office says it has realized the teachings from its disastrously managed acquisition of the Northeye website. These are classes for which the taxpayer has paid a steep value.”

The findings come after a Whitehall spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, also said the Home Office’s attempt to acquire the Northeye site in a few months led to cut corners and a “collection of poor selections”.

The latest report on Wednesday said while the Home Office identified “over 1,000” lessons from its acquisitions of large asylum accommodation sites, committee members remain to be convinced it can put learning into practice.

The report added: “Given that a few of these ‘classes’ ought to have been evident on the time, we’re involved in regards to the Home Office’s means to place that studying into observe and stop such an unacceptable waste of public cash from taking place once more.”

The Home Office was advised restore prices for the previous jail in Bexhill-on-Sea would exceed £20 million.

This is after they spent £15.4m on the positioning – double the associated fee the earlier house owners had paid simply 12 months beforehand.

The Public Accounts Committee additionally confirmed the Home Office spent £34million on the Bibby Stockholm asylum barge, “which housed far fewer asylum seekers than expected”, £60m on a big website lodging website on the former dwelling of the RAF Dambusters, £2.9m on an analogous scheme in Linton-on-Ouse and £715m on the Rwanda scheme.

But efforts to slash the lodge invoice for asylum seekers might result in extreme penalties elsewhere, MPs warned.

They wrote in a brand new report revealed right now: “The Home Office’s efforts to reduce its reliance on hotels could continue to have unintended consequences, such as increasing homelessness and placing unacceptable financial pressure on local councils by driving up rental prices.”

They added: “We are also concerned about the Home Office’s ability to fulfil its duty to safeguard public money and tackle the backlog of asylum claims without pushing problems and costs elsewhere.

“For example, by taking up rental accommodation that is in short supply and desperately needed.”

The Home Office splurged £5.38bn on lodging and assist for asylum seekers final yr – up £1.43bn from the yr earlier than.

Spending on asylum rose by £1.43 billion, up 36% from £3.95 billion in 2022/23 to £5.38 billion in 2023/24.

It is greater than 4 occasions the equal determine for 2020/21 (£1.34 billion) and almost 12 occasions the whole a decade in the past in 2013/14 (£0.45 billion).

Some 29,585 asylum seekers had been staying in taxpayer-funded lodge rooms, as of June 30.

But this has elevated to 35,651, it has emerged.

A complete of 133,409 individuals had been ready for an preliminary choice on an asylum software within the UK on the finish of September 2024.

This is up 12% from 118,882 on the finish of June 2024, however down yr on yr by 19% from 165,411 on the finish of September 2023.

The quantity peaked at 175,457 on the finish of June 2023, which was the very best determine since present information started in 2010.

The variety of individuals ready greater than six months for an preliminary choice stood at 83,888 on the finish of September, up from 76,268 on the finish of June, however down year-on-year by 33% from 124,461.