UK hotel bill for 37,000 migrants actually £4.7m a day, Home Office says

3 February 2022

Woman in hotel — Image caption,
Homes have been found for 4,000 Afghan refugees but 12,000 remained in "bridging accommodation", MPs were told

Some 37,000 asylum seekers and Afghan refugees are living in UK hotels at a cost of £4.7m per day, revised Home Office figures show.

A Home Office official said yesterday the total hotel bill was £1.2m a day but the department has since clarified the actual overall daily cost is £4.7m.

It it understood the £1.2m is to accommodate Afghan refugees and another £3.5m a day is spent on asylum seekers.

A spokesman said the use of hotels was unacceptable and a short-term solution.

He insisted the Home Office was "working hard" to find suitable accommodation for asylum seekers and Afghan refugees, and urged councils to do all they could to help find permanent homes.

It comes after the home secretary said there was a struggle to find permanent homes for thousands of refugees months after they were evacuated from Afghanistan.

Priti Patel told MPs on the Home Affairs Committee the current policy was "thoroughly inadequate".

The Home Office was developing better ways of working with local authorities to find permanent homes, MPs heard.

Ms Patel said: "We do not want people in hotels, we are looking at dispersed accommodation."

She said there were efforts under way to use Ministry of Defence buildings for more asylum accommodation.

How many Afghan refugees are there and where will they go?

There are 25,000 asylum seekers currently in hotels and another 12,000 people rescued from Afghanistan.

Home Office Second Permanent Secretary Tricia Hayes told the committee homes had been found for 4,000 Afghan refugees so far and the 12,000 remained in "bridging accommodation".

She said her department had been working with the Local Government Association and with councils to develop a new way of working on asylum schemes.

She said there was a financial and policy imperative of "cutting the cost that we're currently incurring in hotels, which is now racking up to about £1.2 million every single day".

There were now improved communication systems, such as a dedicated portal to connect people who could offer accommodation with councils and the government to help match them with families, she said.

Ms Hayes added: "We're incredibly grateful to the 300 councils that have already stepped forward to help us, but we can always do with more."

But the Home Office has since clarified that a drafting error saw Ms Hayes incorrectly give the daily hotel bill cost as £1.2m - rather than £4.7m - when arguing for the financial and policy need for cost-cutting.

It is understood she has since clarified with the committee that the £1.2m figure was just part of the total cost.

Conservative MP Tim Loughton told Ms Patel one Afghan refugee in his constituency with young children was in a hotel with "appalling food" and "terrible conditions".

He said he was called a troublemaker and told to shut up and leave when he complained.

Ms Patel asked him to provide her with more details, adding that it was an "awful situation".