Failed asylum seeker housing plan loses £48m

The plans to house asylum seekers at RAF Scampton were scrapped last year

The failed attempt to house asylum seekers on the RAF Scampton site has cost the Home Office at least £48m, figures reveal.

In 2024 the Labour government scrapped the previous Conservative government's plans to accommodate migrants at the former Dambusters base.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service has approached the Conservative party for a comment.

A Home Office spokesperson said the costs had "surged well beyond initial estimates and no longer delivered value for money for taxpayers".

The government has previously admitted that a total of around £60m was spent on the site, of which £48.5m has been recorded as a loss.

The losses, recently published in the Home Office's accounts for the last year, could have increased to £180m if the project had been pursued for another three years, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"The cost of exiting this site was minimal compared to the projected minimum," the Home Office spokesperson added.

Lincoln's Labour MP Hamish Falconer said Robert Jenrick – the Conservative minister for immigration at the time – needed to account for the decision.

"There are real questions for Robert Jenrick about why he kept pushing his disastrous plan for Scampton," he said on social media.

"Local people were opposed, costs were rocketing, and the taxpayer was losing tens of millions. It took a Labour MP and government to stop the madness."

The Local Democracy Reporting Service has approached Jenrick for a comment.

Speaking while minister in 2023, Jenrick said: "The Home Secretary and I have been clear that using expensive hotels for asylum seekers is wholly unacceptable.

"Delivering accommodation on surplus military sites will provide cheaper and more orderly, suitable accommodation for those arriving in small boats."

The former airbase has been placed on the open market to help recoup the costs of the failed project.

Potential buyers could include West Lindsey District Council who have £300m regeneration plans for the site.

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