Private firms are reportedly making increased profits as the UK government pays millions of pounds a day to house asylum seekers in the country's hotels. According to a report by BBC News,
a total of 395 hotels are being used by the Home Office to accommodate over 51,000 asylum seekers, as arrivals to the UK rose last year. While the government has never publicly confirmed the number of hotels involved, a government source revealed to BBC News that they are being charged a daily rate of over £6m. The rise in the number of asylum seekers has put the UK's asylum system under "incredible strain", according to the Home Office.
The report revealed that one booking agency used by the Home Office had tripled its pre-tax profits from £2.1m to £6.3m in the 12 months up to February 2022. The use of hotels has increased exponentially as the number of people claiming asylum in the UK has increased, reaching a near 20-year high of 74,751 last year, according to Home Office data. Asylum applications to the UK peaked at 84,132 in 2002, but then fell sharply to a low of 17,916 in 2010. Small boat arrivals, accounting for about 45% of asylum applications in 2022, were also at record levels.
Because of a lack of other suitable accommodation, asylum seekers are housed in hotels, which are often taken over by the government with only a few days' notice. The report revealed that existing bookings at some hotels, including business conferences and weddings, have been cancelled at short notice. Hotel owners are approached to hand over their properties to outsourced companies, which run the business on behalf of the Home Office. Three large firms have contracts to run the hotels. One of them, Serco, provides some 109 hotels in England, according to a High Court judgement from December 2022, mostly in the Midlands, East and North West. The other two firms have not been named.
Court documents have revealed that Mears Group is running 80 hotels in north-east England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. According to its annual report, the company increased its annual revenue by 22% in 2021. The report said the increase was "largely driven" by its work finding hotel accommodation for asylum seekers. Home Office spending records show that Calder Conferences, a smaller firm, received £20.6m in payments from the Home Office in 2021 to book hotels. That figure increased to £97m in 2022. Home Office sources suggested this work related principally to finding bridging hotels for Afghan refugees who arrived following the Taliban takeover in 2021. Calder's annual accounts for the year ending February 2022 show that turnover increased from £5.98m to £23.66m. The firm's pre-tax profits trebled, from £2.1m to £6.3m. Calder's director, Debbie Hoban, saw her annual remuneration increase from £230,000 to £2.2m. The firm has not responded to the BBC's request for comment.
The report also highlighted the indiscriminate choice of hotels, with contracts signed with hotels at airports, golf courses, country houses, the seaside, and some used for city business workers. Some towns, like Swindon, have more than one hotel housing asylum seekers, while others have none. According to the BBC, communities have spoken of their anger about the lack of consultation before asylum seekers moved in. There have been some protests, with far-right elements involved. At the Wiltshire Leisure Village, a retirement complex near Royal Wootton Bassett, asylum seekers have been housed at a nearby hotel, and fences have been erected. Photo by DFID - UK Department for International Development, Wikimedia commons.