Shock reason for delays in closing migrant hotels revealed amid fury and outcry

Estate agents and insurance companies are frustrating efforts to close migrant hotels, asylum accommodation providers have claimed. Clearsprings Ready Homes told an inquiry "estate agents do not want to work with us as a company" and would rather deal with individuals.

And they claimed insurance firms are hiking premiums when they discover asylum seekers are being moved into homes across the country. Another asylum accommodation provider, Serco, warned that planning rules and refurbishment costs are also preventing more hotels from being closed. Some 32,000 asylum seekers are being housed in about 210 hotels.

The Home Office wants to shut every hotel by 2029 and move migrants into sites such as former student accommodation, disused tower blocks and community homes.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer sparked fury last week after claiming there is "lots" of housing for illegal migrants, despite an intense housing crisis.

But Clearsprings Ready Homes, which provides asylum accommodation in London, the South of England, and Wales, has told the Home Affairs Select Committee: "One of the most significant barriers to procurement that the team face is the fact that some estate agents do not want to work with us as a company and their preference is to work in a traditional manner with individuals in the private market.

"Many landlords prefer to rent to the private sector or local authorities because of the amount of work which needs to be completed to make the property compliant.

"Our minimum standards/requirements are much higher than, for example, the local authority, who tend to be able to hand over keys immediately to an empty property which needs to be furnished by the tenant.

"Many insurance companies are now adding a premium to landlord home insurance policies when they find out that asylum seekers are going to occupy the property.

"Sometimes this increase in premium makes the property untenable for the landlord and they withdraw."

Serco, which provides housing in the North-west, the Midlands and the East of England, told MPs: "The challenges associated with standing up medium sites include upfront costs such as refurbishment, local planning requirements and local community reaction.

"Our experience of identifying medium sites also indicates that the timescales to secure appropriate approvals mean landlords can secure a return on their investment more quickly through alternative utilisation."

Asylum accommodation provider Mears told the Home Affairs Select Committee: "Ultimately, the main barrier to Mears maximising DA [dispersal accommodation] delivery is the need for a fair and equitable national dispersal regime.

"Each LA [local authority] has an agreed cap on the number of asylum seekers to be housed in their area.

"In NEYH [North-east and Yorkshire and Humber] we are at that cap in all areas where there continues to be appropriate housing to meet the needs of single people and families.

"Areas below the cap are rural in nature and where property is available is often not suitable for dispersal."

Protests have broken out again after an asylum seeker was accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Epping, Essex.

Communities are calling for migrant hotels to be closed. Ministers want to partner with councils to buy or lease houses and vacant properties around the UK to house asylum seekers.

The Government could pay councils to buy or renovate property, which they would lease back to the Home Office.

Some hotels have been forced to remain in use for as few as three migrants because of refusals to move out.

Asylum seekers will be threatened with losing their taxpayer-funded accommodation and weekly £49.18 allowance if they reject a transfer request for a second time under a new "firm but fair" policy to reduce the number of asylum hotels.

More than 24,000 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year.

Reform UK's Nigel Farage said: "My view is I don't think any of the young men that crossed the English Channel should be free to walk our streets.

"I think the risk, not just the risk of getting involved in the illegal economy, not just the risk to girls and older women.

"I think the terrorism risk, which of course has been writ all too large in the last couple of months with arrests being made as we know, I don't believe that crossings via small boat should be able to be put in a four-star hotel, put into a house of multiple occupancy and free to roam the streets.

"I'll go further than that. I don't think anyone who crosses via that route should ever be eligible for refugee status, should ever be eligible for social housing.

"We are an incredibly generous country. We have given refugee status to half a million people since 2016.

"I don't think we dare do much more than we already have. We're getting to the point where, frankly, the social contract between the governors and the governed is on the edge of breaking down, which is the last thing any of us want to see."