The cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels has risen to £8m a day, according to the Home Office's annual report published on Tuesday. This figure surpasses the £6m daily bill cited by Home Secretary Suella Braverman in the Commons on Monday.
The report states that the overall cost of the asylum system now exceeds £3bn a year, and highlights the government's commitment to reducing hotel use by accelerating claim processing and deploying alternative accommodation such as barges and former military sites.
Under legal obligations, asylum seekers not permitted to work must be provided with basic housing. However, a record backlog of 175,000 people awaiting initial decisions at the end of June—up 44% from the previous year—has forced greater reliance on expensive hotel accommodation.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper described the £8m daily bill as "astronomical" and accused the Conservatives of "utter failure". She noted that hotel costs had increased by a third since Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to end their use.
A government source defended the approach, saying the Rwanda scheme, currently awaiting a Supreme Court ruling, would break the people smugglers' business model. "This is why we've got to get migrants out of hotels and stop the boats," the source added.
