Government struggles to slash foreign aid spent on asylum hotels

The authorities is struggling to chopped the billions of pounds of overseas assistance partially utilized to location asylum seekers successful hotels, according to caller figures.

The £2.2bn Home Office estimation to walk £2.2bn of overseas improvement assistance (ODA) successful this fiscal twelvemonth is lone somewhat little than the £2.3bn spent successful 2024/25.

The immense bulk is utilized for the accommodation for asylum seekers who person arrived successful the UK, with caller figures showing much than 32,000 were being housed successful hotels astatine the extremity of March.

Labour has pledged "to extremity the usage of asylum hotels" and the authorities says it has reduced the wide asylum enactment costs by fractional a cardinal pounds, including £200m successful ODA savings, which had been passed backmost to the Treasury.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said helium volition chopped the wide ODA from its existent level of 0.5% of gross nationalist income (GNI) to 0.3% successful 2027.

Foreign aid is expected to beryllium spent connected providing humanitarian and improvement assistance successful different countries, but the UK is allowed to number refugee-hosting costs arsenic ODA nether internationally agreed rules.

Labour MP Sarah Champion antecedently said a "scandalously ample amount" of ODA has been diverted to the Home Office and has called for a headdress connected however overmuch tin beryllium spent supporting asylum seekers and refugees successful the UK.

Asylum seekers and their families are housed successful impermanent accommodation if they are waiting for the result of a assertion oregon an entreaty and person been assessed arsenic not being capable to enactment themselves independently.

They are housed successful hotels if determination is not capable abstraction successful accommodation provided by section authorities oregon different organisations.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "We inherited an asylum strategy nether exceptional pressure, and are urgently taking enactment to reconstruct order, and trim costs.

"This volition yet trim the magnitude of Official Development Assistance spent to enactment asylum seekers and refugees successful the UK.

"We are instantly speeding up decisions and expanding returns truthful that we tin extremity the usage of hotels and prevention the payer £4bn by 2026."