Braverman has no credible plan to end asylum hotel use, damning report says

26 October 2023 , 23:01

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Cross-party MPs say Suella Braverman's asylum backlog plans aren't credible (Image: Andy Stenning/Sunday Mirror)

Suella Braverman doesn't have a "credible" plan to end hotel use for asylum seekers, a damning report has found.

Cross-party MPs have raised a string of doubts over the Government's ability to clear a mammoth backlog and deal with "unacceptable" costs. The Home Office is accused of driving up the cost of housing migrants in hotels by failing to work with councils, and making "alarming" compromises.

Failure to get a grip on the crisis - which has seen the cost of asylum swell to £4billion a year - risks making a bad situation worse, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) warned. The scathing document branded the asylum system "inefficient", voiced alarm over a lack of safeguards for the vulnerable and said there is now a greater risk of flawed decisions. At the end of June a record 175,000 people were in limbo waiting for a ruling on their asylum claims.

Committee chair Dame Meg Hillier said: “The backlog of people waiting for a decision on their asylum claim is leaving tens of thousands of people in limbo at an unacceptable cost of billions to the taxpayer. But the compromises being made by the Home Office to meet its commitments are alarming, and some could have grave consequences."

She continued: “Addressing the backlog at pace is of course desirable, but not if the Government’s approach is to do so by simply shifting pressures onto other parts of the system, by risking more flawed decisions or genuine asylum claims being withdrawn, or most seriously by putting the safety of vulnerable people at risk."

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Dame Meg called on the Home Secretary to lay out a "realistic and detailed plan" for transforming the asylum system. Failure to do so will "risk making a bad situation worse", she said.

By failing to work with local councils to find accommodation, it is "driving up prices" and making the challenge of tackling homelessness even worse, MPs found. The Government said it doesn't have a date when it expects to stop using hotels.

The report said committee members were "surprised" that the Home Office is paying for 5,000 empty hotel beds as a "buffer" in case processing sites such as Manston are overwhelmed. The PAC said: "The Home Office’s failure to process asylum claims efficiently has led to unacceptable costs to the taxpayer. No credible plan exists to end the use of hotels to accommodate people waiting for a decision, at a cost of £2.3bn in 2022-23."

Ministers say 2,600 asylum decisions need to be made per week to clear a "legacy" asylum backlog. But the Home Office's "incomplete and unrealistic" plans will lead to "more flawed decisions" or the withdrawal of genuine asylum claims.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “The Government is working to end the unacceptable use of hotels by moving asylum seekers into alternative, cheaper accommodation and clearing the legacy backlog. We have taken immediate action to speed up asylum processing whilst maintaining the integrity of the system.

“This includes simplifying guidance, streamlining processes and introducing shorter, focussed interviews. Between the end of November 2022 and the end of August 2023, the asylum backlog of legacy cases had fallen by over 35,000 cases and we are confident that with increased capacity and improved efficiency this will help deliver further significant output over the coming months.”

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Dave Burke