A UK landlord has hit out at the Labour Government's plans to house asylum seekers in privately rented housing, claiming the policy is "two-tier".
Speaking to GB News, Manchester-based landlord Sian Astley criticised Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's latest move in tackling the surge in illegal migrant crossings - branding it "appalling".
The Home Office has launched the recruitment drive for landlords to house asylum seekers following a record surge in Channel migrant crossings.
Serco, one of three private contractors working for the Home Office, is offering the landlords a five-year guaranteed full rent deal, at the taxpayer's expense.
Landlord Sian Astley has blasted Keir Starmer's 'two-tier' plan to house migrants in privately rented housing
GB News / PA
Discussing the deal on GB News - after being offered it herself - Astley explained: "It isn't really a new policy as such, Government and local authorities kind of kickstarted and accelerated it during Covid, where vulnerable tenants - the homeless or people with drug addiction problems or people with learning difficulties - councils would house them in HMOs run by private landlords.
"And that's now expanded to include asylum seekers, economic migrants, illegal immigrants - however you want to describe them."
Describing the area that her property is in, Astley highlighted that it is in a "key student area" of Manchester: "I live in Fallowfield, which is a very student area in south Manchester. And landlords around here, including myself, have been approached."
Asked by host Emily Carver whether she was "tempted" to accept the offer, Astley admitted: "I think it's actually appalling, and I think it skews the housing market.
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The Home Office is offering landlords a five-year guaranteed full rent deal to house asylum seekers
"It raises rents locally for tenants, so it's a very unfair system. So what we've got again is another example of two-tier policy making where landlords who house your traditional type of tenant are penalised through excessive taxation, and increased legislation."
Criticising the plans further, Astley argued that private landlords are being approached because commercial companies such as Serco have "run out" of properties.
She told GB News: "If you are a corporate landlord - because it's mainly corporates, it's mainly the bigger limited companies that do this, but they've run out of houses now, companies like Serco, they've run out of houses, so they're coming to smaller landlords.
"And of course, it's very tempting, but I'm not going to do it on principle, and that may make me stupid."
Astley told GB News that she is 'not doing' the rental scheme after being offered it
GB News
Detailing the possible income for landlords who do accept the deal, Astley claimed that it could pay the mortgage on a property off in a "matter of years".
She concluded: "I ran some figures, and £14 a night on a ten-bed property, it's nearly £80,000 a year. You'll pay your mortgage up in five years."
A spokesman for the Home Office said in a statement: "These arrangements with the private rented sector have been in place for years, including under the previous Government.
"We have a statutory duty to support destitute asylum seekers who will not be able to pay for fees, such as utilities and council tax.
"We're restoring order to the asylum system and cutting costs to taxpayers by reducing the number of people we are required to accommodate through a rapid increase in asylum decision making, and the removal of more than 24,000 people with no right to be in the UK."
