Rachel Reeves is Promised to end the use of asylum hotels by 2029 As part of a spending review, which cut the budget of the home office.
Speaking to MPs in the Commons on Wednesday, the Chancellor said that their plan to improve the refuge system would save £ 1BN in a year. However, Treasury’s estimates showed that the Home Office still expects to spend £ 2.5BN at the shelter cost by the end of this Parliament.
Labor had already made a manifesto commitment to end the use of hotels for migrants, but Ms. Reeves has now committed to do so within four years.
Refugee Charities welcomed the news, saying that the hotels were “very expensive” and separated the shelter seekers from local communities, but urged the ministers to move forward fast.
Instead, where will the government keep asylum seekers?
The house office is searching for the use of medium -sized sites for shelter seekers instead of hotels, including alumni housing. They are working with local councils to try to give houses to more people and other houses within the flats.
Home Office Minister Dame Angela Eagle has said that empty tower blocks, former teacher training colleges and unused student housing are being considered as an alternative.
Joan Rowland, a senior civil servant at the house office, told MPs on Tuesday that the government providers were clear that “we are getting out of the hotel and we need to do so fast due to cost”.
But he said: “We need to get out of the hotel and do alternative housing in a highly controlled manner. If it was just an editing to close the hotels, we will be dispersed, then we will end with uneven concentration and some local authorities that I know that I am just feeling that it is right now”.
Labor has gone away from conservative schemes for migrants to reproduce former military bases, as these sites are expensive to run and are very isolated and often not close to local services such as doctors’ surgery and schools. The controversial Bibbi Stockholm Barj contract was abolished and authorities plan to use the former RAF scampton site in Lincolnshire.
But the house office is not yet aware of whether they will buy new essential sites or rent them and what sites they are watching.
What else is the government doing to reduce the need of a hotel?
The ministers are also putting more resources in processing the claims of asylum and the shelter appeals to clean the backlogs of people waiting to process their matters.
The Home Office has recruited more employees to assess the claims, resulting in an increase in matters of asylum. Once rejected, applicants no longer qualify for home office housing and either support themselves or go to local councils for emergency housing assistance.
The number of shelter applications in the UK has a new height of 109,343 from March 2025 to March 2025 from March 2025 to March 2025, which is 93,150 to 17 percent in the year ending March 2024.
But the backlog of cases waiting for a decision has fallen to its lowest level since 2021. Home office figures show that 109,536 people were waiting for the initial decision at the end of March 2025 – 124,802 to 12 percent in late December 2024 and the lowest number after December 2021.
How much money will be saved and how much do we currently spend on hotels?
The number of asylum seekers is placed in the hotel, which is about 35 percent of all the people in Sharan Awas; However, this is a very large proportion of overall expenses. About 76 percent of the shelter contract cost, or £ 1.3bn was spent on hotels in 2024-25National Audit Office received.
The Watchdog said that around 110,000 people were seeking asylum, in December 2024 in the house office, in some 38,000 hotels, the Watchdog said.
New figures of March show that 32,345 asylum seekers were kept in hotels.
Under the schemes published by Treasury on Wednesday, officials estimated that they would still spend £ 2.9BN at a lrange cost in 2027-28 and £ 2.5BN in 2028-29. This year, the shelter cost is expected to be £ 3.9bn.
Is 2029 a realistic goal?
The top civil servant of the home office told the MPs earlier this year that the department is aiming to bring the use of the hotel for “zero”, but that Any “ups and downs” will depend on.
Sir Matthew Ricroft, who has now quit the top job, said: “The Ministers will want to keep the committee and the Parliament updated on the total numbers [of hotels]Which has exceeded 400 to 218, but I do not think you should expect a gradual decline of the number by the end of this Parliament, which has become neatly zero. Our aim is to become zero by the end of this Parliament, but there will be ups and downs. ,
Why are politicians eager to clean migrant hotels?
The hotel is more expensive than other forms of housing and private companies are earning significant benefits from providing hotel rooms at home office.
Running these hotels day-to-day is often sub-control, and in some cases, the officials of the home office in charge of large hotel contracts Who is offering important services unknown.
According to the testimony provided to MPs, Sexual attacks, danger and prostitution have occurred inside the hotel, and children have experienced malnutrition due to poor food.
Hotels may also be isolated for asylum seekers, which are eager to know people in the community, of which sites are often located away from the centers of the city.
The hotels have also been targeted by several attack migrant rioters and activists during the previous summer riots. YouTubers have also changed to film in migrant hotels To scare the residents themselves.
What has been a reaction to the pledge?
The refugee charity has welcomed the news but urged the government to go beyond.
Refugee Council CEO Envara Solomon said: “Refugees have become hotels A flashpoint for community stress And the cost of billions to the taxpayer, so ending their use is good for refugees, taxpayers and communities. The 2029 deadline seems to be far away, and we urge the government to be before it. ,
He said that those who want refuge should be “not isolated in remote hotels within our communities”.
Charity Care4calais stated that it would be welcomed to go from hotel to the housing within communities and would be called to terminate “for-Profit refuge housing models”.
Chief Executive Steve Smith said: “Sharan Awas should be provided on the basis of the needs of the people taking refuge, not the profit of private owners and shareholders. The first step in that direction will be to include local authorities in the distribution of housing in their areas.”
Shadow Chancellor Mail Struid said the home office was still investing money on asylum cost “because this government has no plans on illegal stay”.
