The cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels has risen to £8m a day, according to the Home Office’s annual report.
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, had said the figure was £6m a day when addressing the Commons on Monday.
Ministers have promised to “reduce” the use of hotels to house asylum seekers while their claims are processed, by speeding up the processing of applications and bringing in cheaper accommodation on barges and disused military sites.
The annual report, published on Tuesday, states: “We need to stop the boats to relieve the unsustainable pressure on our asylum system and accommodation services, which is costing over £3bn a year. The Illegal Migration Act will ensure anyone arriving illegally can be detained and swiftly removed, so that people know they cannot skip the queue by coming here illegally.
“This goes further than ever before to do what is necessary to fix the issue, but legislative changes take time and there is no single silver bullet. In the meantime, we must take action to address the unacceptable costs of housing migrants in hotels which is costing the taxpayer around £8m a day.”
The government has a legal obligation to provide asylum seekers, who are not allowed to work while their claim is being processed, with a basic level of accommodation. They would typically only be housed in hotels or hostels for a few weeks before being moved to long-term self-catered homes. However, the increase in people claiming asylum and the backlog of unprocessed claims has led to a growth in the use of hotels.
In August, it emerged that more than 175,000 people were waiting for a decision on whether they would be granted refugee status at the end of June – up 44% from last year.
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the £8m daily bill was “astronomical”.
“That is the price of the Conservatives’ utter failure to get a grip on this issue – now costing over £3bn a year. Shockingly, the cost of hotel accommodation has gone up by a third since Rishi Sunak promised to end hotel use.
“The Tories have busted the Home Office budget, they’ve broken the asylum system, and the British people are paying the price.”
Referring to the £8m figure, a government source said: “This is why we’ve got to get migrants out of hotels and stop the boats. We’re confident our Rwanda scheme, which is awaiting a judgment from the supreme court, will break the people smugglers’ business model.
“All Labour would do is add to the problem by welcoming our fair share of the million asylum seekers in the European Union every year and make illegal migration legal.”
