To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's proposal to use a hotel in E10 to house asylum seekers, when her Department plans to put in place (a) details of additional support provided by her Department to the local authority, (b) proposals to support local services experiencing additional demand and (c) proposals to ensure that hotel residents are able to move from that premises into longer term accommodation.
Answered on
8 June 2022
On 13th April 2022, The Minister for Safe and Legal Migration announced with immediate effect we would move to a full model for dispersal, to end our reliance on the use of contingency accommodation.
We have committed to working with local authorities to move to a fairer distribution of asylum seekers. All local authority areas in England, Scotland and Wales will be expected to participate in the new system process to allow us to move from hotels to less expensive and more suitable dispersed accommodation.
The full dispersal procurement process will run in two parts
a. Continued Procurement is effective from the 13th of April and will run until Regional Allocation plans are agreed. This is in place to ensure we are progressing with procurement in the absence of Regional Allocation plans.
b. Procurement against Regional Allocation Plans which will commence from the 15th of July or in advance pertaining to agreement on regional allocation plans and once the allocations are confirmed and shared.
We are committed to working with local authorities to move to a fairer distribution of asylum seekers and so during the week of 9 May, we launched an informal consultation. This will help to design how the full dispersal system will operate in each region. Participants will include Devolved Governments, Local Authorities and Non-Government Organisations who have an interest in asylum dispersal and resettlement. This consultation will run for 8 weeks.
To recognise the existing contribution and longstanding support from local authorities, each local authority in England, Scotland and Wales which was accommodating asylum seekers on 27 March 2022 will receive a £250 one off payment per asylum seeker.
In addition, further funding has been made available for 2022/2023 to provide £3,500 for each new dispersal bed space occupied, in both new and existing dispersal areas, between 28 March 2022 and 31 March 2023. This funding can be used to implement and/or bolster services in both new and existing areas. This will alleviate some pressures on local authorities and will ensure every local authority plays its part in this important work. Funding is also available for primary care through clinical commissioning groups.
The Government is fixing the broken asylum system through the work of the Nationality and Borders Bill. The asylum accommodation system is under enormous pressure because of the significant and sustained increase in asylum intake over the last 12 months and the build-up of the population as a result of Covid-19 related measures, which is placing unsustainable pressure on a limited number of local authorities.
This has resulted in the Home Office having to source temporary contingency accommodation, such as the hotels in E10. The use of hotel contingency is only ever a short term solution and we are working with our accommodation providers to find appropriate dispersed accommodation across the United Kingdom.