The boss of a firm which made a fortune housing asylum seekers in conditions described as squalid has spent £1.1million on a mansion. Former Army major James Vyvyan-Robinson, 64, and his wife Nicola splashed out on a new home in Perthshire.
Vyvyan-Robinson is managing director of Clearsprings Ready Homes, which raked in £28million of profits last year. It is contracted by the Home Office to run hotels and other accommodation for asylum seekers. But some sites – such as Napier Barracks in Folkestone, Kent – have been dogged by criticism. When Covid struck, residents protested about sharing with those who were infected.
After a visit in February by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Immigration Detention, MPs and peers called for the barracks to be shut down. Facilities were described as “filthy and decrepit”. The MPs’ report said Napier was in an “extremely poor” state, that there was inadequate safeguarding of the vulnerable and a “near total lack of privacy”.
Tim Naor Hilton, CEO of the charity Refugee Action, said: “The Government is wasting public money and allowing its
contractors to make millions while providing substandard, unsafe accommodation for people who come to the UK in search of protection. Asylum accommodation is of a disgracefully low standard and people have experienced serious risk of harm while housed there.”
Another Clearspring camp –Penally in Pembrokeshire, Wales – was closed in March. Inspectors found it was “rundown and unsuitable”, lacked Covid protection and fire safety. They also found residents’ mental health was deteriorating. Poor conditions have been exposed at other Clearsprings sites, including 18 flats in Uxbridge, west London, which were found in January to be rife with damp, mould, water leaks and pest infestations.
Last October, the firm was ordered to pay more than £60,000 in fines and costs at Newport Magistrates’ Court. Offences included operating a house of multiple occupancy without a licence and failing to ensure firefighting equipment and that fire alarms were maintained in good working order.
Clearsprings, which has a registered business address in Rayleigh, Essex, has a 10-year contract ending in 2029 to manage asylum seeker accommodation. Accounts show annual profits to January 2022 rocketed from £4,419,841 to £28,012,487. A spokesman for Clearsprings said: “We have no comment to make.”
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