ASYLUM accomodation should be decentralised from the Home Office as the costs per person have more than doubled in four years, a new report says today.

Reliance on hotels has led to asylum accomodation and support costs per person soaring from £17,000 in 2019/20 to £41,000 in 2023/24, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found.

The escalating costs and poor standards of accomodation can be reversed by ending national outsourcing contracts with private companies, the think tank said.

IPPR senior research fellow Dr Lucy Mort said: “The asylum accommodation system is in urgent need of reform.

“It’s costing far too much while failing to provide people fleeing war and persecution with the safe, clean environments they need.

“Poorly designed contracts, mismanagement, and lack of local input have left those seeking asylum trapped in substandard living conditions for too long and caused real challenges for regional, local and devolved government.

“We must decentralise control to regional and local bodies that can better understand and serve their communities, enhance safeguarding to protect vulnerable people and create the conditions for those seeking asylum to rebuild their lives." 

Much of the increase in cost has been driven by the slow processing of asylum claims and the growing backlog under the previous government, said the report.

Ministers were urged to take advantage of the “critical opportunity” to decentralise budgets and powers to regional bodies ahead of a break clause in 2026 in the Home Office’s asylum accommodation contracts with Clearsprings, Mears and Serco.

The think tank said that failing large sites should be closed immediately, calling for better oversight of private companies in the short term with “significant penalties for non-compliance.”