Labour will extend the use of migrant hotels for four years, despite ministers previously pledging to end the scheme “as soon as possible”.
Sir Matthew Rycroft, the Home Office's top civil servant, has said that the Government aims to “exit” asylum hotels by 2029, which is the end of the Parliament.
He told the Commons Home Affairs Committee that the journey “is off to a good start”, with the number of hotels down from over 400 to 218.
Rycroft said the Government has turned away from larger sites such as the Bibby Stockholm Barge and ex-military bases and was now using smaller sites - some bought by the Home Office whilst others were privately rented properties.
Labour said it would stop the use of migrant accommodation which would 'save the taxpayer billions of pounds'
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He said that whilst the figure will continue to decrease, it could be prone to fluctuation as “it is a statutory obligation to provide that accommodation and sometimes hotels are the only possible way of doing that”.
His comments stand in stark comparison to Labour’s pre-election pledge to end the use of all migrant hotels within 12 months of coming to power.
The Government said they would do this by recruiting 1,000 caseworkers to tackle the backlog of applications.
Whilst Labour has stepped up in its efforts to clear the backlog - with 10,000 applications being processed every month - the figures are being levelled out with the 25,000 illegal migrants that have crossed the border since Starmer came to power.
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The Best Western hotel in Peckham, south London, where protesters formed a blockade around a coach which was parked nearby in order to prevent the removal of migrants from the temporary accommodation in May 2024
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Rycroft said the Government has turned away from larger sites such as the Bibby Stockholm Barge
PAIn its official manifesto, the party did not set out a time scale to axe the hotels, however, it did say it would stop the use of migrant accommodation which would “save the taxpayer billions of pounds”.
After Sir Keir Starmer entered No10, the party has since said that ending the use of migrant accommodation “will take time”, though it will endeavour to stop their use “as soon as possible”.
Last month, Dame Angela Eagle, the Border Security Minister, said that there had been a net rise of six hotels. However, she said that nine were scheduled to close by the end of March.
Under the Tories, hundreds of millions of pounds was being spent on mass accommodation sites, such as the Bibby Stockholm barge which was moored in Portland, Dorset.
However, a report from the financial watchdog National Audit Office (NAO) found that the now-decanted barge did not represent a good value for money.
Sir Matthew RycroftGOV.ukStill in use is the large former RAF base at Wethersfield in Essex, which currently houses around 540 migrants.
Concerns about spiralling costs mean Whitehall officials have now been looking into replacing the costly military bases and hotels with disused care homes and empty student flats.
A Home Office spokesman said in December: “We have inherited enormous pressures in the asylum system and remain absolutely committed to ending the use of hotels to ensure value for money.
“We have identified a range of sites that we are narrowing down to a handful of suitable properties that will enable us to exit hotels sooner.”
The Government is considering using care homes and student flats as part of a plan to slash the £5.5million bill to house migrants in hotel accommodation.
