Labour is under fire for refusing to explain how nearly £122 million has been shared out to local councils to cover the costs of asylum accommodation, with Conservatives accusing ministers of trying to “bury the truth”.
Critics say the lack of transparency is unacceptable at a time when council budgets are under huge strain and families are paying more in council tax. New Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is being pressed to publish the full details amid warnings that councils are being short-changed.
Shadow communities minister David Simmonds raised concerns in a letter to Mahmood, saying: “This lack of transparency is deeply concerning. Local authorities are facing acute financial pressures as a direct result of asylum accommodation costs, while illegal migration across the Channel continues to get to record levels due to the Labour Government’s failure to tackle illegal migration”, reported the Express.
“Without clarity on how grant funding is being allocated, taxpayers cannot be confident they are receiving fair treatment. My own [Hillingdon] council estimates it is being short-changed by around £17 million, costs which ultimately fall on residents through higher council tax bills.”
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accused Labour of ignoring local communities. “Labour are turning every corner of Britain into a dumping ground for their asylum crisis. People who have lived in the same street for decades now wake up to find their community overwhelmed overnight, with services stretched and safety put at risk. Local voices are ignored, objections brushed aside, and families left powerless. This is an immigration crisis, and the feeble Labour government is making it worse.”
Philp said Conservatives would take a tougher approach: “We will fix this by deporting every single illegal arrival. Without deportations there is no deterrence, without deterrence the boats will never stop.”
Simmonds added: “Labour are trying to bury the truth about how much councils are really getting to cover the cost of asylum accommodation. If ministers continue to hide this information, it will only raise further questions about what they are trying to conceal.”
“Across the country, communities are being short-changed, council budgets are buckling, and residents are being hammered with higher council tax bills to plug the gap. The public have a right to know where this money has gone and whether their communities are being treated fairly.”
The latest figures show that in June 2004, just before Labour took office, 29,585 people were in hotels receiving asylum support. By the end of June this year, that number had risen slightly to 32,059. Over the same period, the overall number of people receiving asylum support went from 100,995 to 106,075. The use of hotels peaked at 56,042 in September 2023.
A Government spokesperson said: “This Government inherited an asylum system in chaos, with tens of thousands of individuals in hotels waiting for their claims to be heard. We have taken urgent action to fix this. This year, the rate of asylum decision-making has doubled. We have reduced spending on hotels by almost £1 billion. And we will close every hotel by the end of this Parliament.”
