HIAS+JCORE has today (17.04.2025) joined with 106 other NGOs and refugee charities in urging the Government to stop housing people seeking asylum in hotels, and to express concern about the usage of the UK’s aid budget on these costs.
Coordinated by the international development network Bond, the letter welcomes steps taken since the 2024 election to “turn around the asylum system” and the “ramping up of decision-making so people can leave Home Office accommodation.”
However, it expresses concern that 20% (£2.8bn) of the UK’s aid budget is being used to support displaced people in the UK, including on inappropriate and costly asylum hotels.
Recommending that the Government instead scales up “the use of more cost-effective and appropriate community housing for asylum seekers”, signatories stress that such an approach “not only provides better value for money but also ensures higher quality living conditions and better integration into society.” Doing so would see local authorities, rather than private companies, given responsibility and resources to accommodate people seeking asylum.
The letter continues by calling for the 2026 break clauses in the accommodation contracts to be utilised.
Highlighting that 80% of the British public want a fair and compassionate asylum system, it concludes by stating that as “poverty, conflict, and climate change are key drivers of displacement, spending increasingly finite UK aid resources domestically rather than on these core areas undermines the UK’s efforts to prevent displacement.”
Other signatories include the Refugee Council, Refugee Action, Choose Love, International Rescue Committee UK and Safe Passage International.
