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Council leaders write to Javid over ‘mounting chaos’ in asylum seeker accommodation
Council leaders in Yorkshire have written to the home secretary warning of “mounting chaos” in asylum seeker accommodation.
A cross-party coalition of leaders from 14 councils signed the letter, first published by the Yorkshire Post, asking Sajid Javid to intervene and work with local authorities to resolve the procurement of asylum seeker accommodation in the Yorkshire & Humber region.
In their letter, which was signed by councils run by both Labour and the Conservatives, the leaders said the current approach could lead to “catastrophic failure” and added that some local authorities in the region are considering refusing to allow any more asylum seekers to be housed in their areas.
Accommodation for asylum seekers in the UK is provided by three private companies – G4S, Serco and Clearsprings – and allocated across six regions.
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The current contracts are set to expire in 2019, and in December last year the Home Office began the procurement process to find providers for the period from 2019 to 2029.
In May, however, it posted a renewed request for bids for two regions: Northern Ireland and Yorkshire and the Humber. Asylum seeker accommodation in these areas is currently run by Serco and G4S respectively.
The Home Office said in its notice to the Official Journal of the European Union: “This is as a result of no compliant bids for these lots being received.”
In their letter to Mr Javid, published below, the leaders wrote: “We are particularly concerned about the unsuccessful £600m procurement for asylum housing in our regions, described by the Home Office as ‘a state of urgency’, which is leading to a significant risk of a housing crisis for up to 5,500 asylum seekers in 2019.
“Despite the Home Office being aware of this situation for months and having ‘undertaken extensive engagement with the market’, astonishingly, we only heard about this at the end of June.”
The letter went on to criticise the over-reliance of the UK asylum seeker accommodation system on northern regions, where most asylum seekers are housed.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “There is an ongoing procurement process for the asylum accommodation and support contract for the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber regions.
“We are confident of having a fully operational contract before the expiry of the current contract, with sufficient time to properly transition the services.”
The council leaders' letter to the Home Office
Dear Home Secretary,
We request that you intervene in the mounting chaos surrounding the asylum system and urgently work with local authorities in Yorkshire and Humber to offer reassurances and find collaborative solutions. We are particularly concerned about the unsuccessful £600m procurement for asylum housing in our regions, described by the Home Office as ‘a state of urgency’, which is leading to a significant risk of a housing crisis for up to 5,500 asylum seekers in 2019.
Despite the Home Office being aware of this situation for months and having ‘undertaken extensive engagement with the market’, astonishingly, we only heard about this at the end of June. We have still not been approached by the Home Office to work collaboratively on risk management and strategic planning and we are disappointed in the decision taken to exclude local authorities during this period, and in more recent weeks to seemingly limit public scrutiny until the re-tender process was closed.
We are proud of our region’s participation in the UK’s humanitarian protection programmes and we have been at the forefront of asylum dispersal and refugee settlement over the last two decades. It is thus somewhat frustrating that with such successful partnerships we are now being increasingly side-lined.
There have been many positive developments in recent years from government on immigration, which have seen local authorities and local communities as key and essential partners towards delivering cohesive integrated communities.
Over the last 12 months our chief executives have been working positively and collaboratively to support the Home Office plan, learn from and emulate this approach, particularly around asylum. Unfortunately, it is now evident that the Home Office will not extend this successful collaborative model of working to the asylum system for at least 10 more years.
For too long, asylum dispersal has been implemented as something done to local authorities and communities in the North of England rather than done with them in partnership, with little heed paid to concerns raised about cohesion or disproportionate concentrations of asylum seekers in our towns and cities.
A number of local authorities have regularly expressed these immigration concerns have regularly expressed these immigration concerns to the Home Office and Immigration Ministers, but we have experienced little urgency in addressing them. A recent meeting on asylum issues between Leaders from across the UK and the Minister did little to ease their concerns.
It cannot be right that many towns and cities across the North of England each have more asylum seekers clustered in a handful of wards than entire regions in the South and East of the country. Rather than work with us to address these issues, the Home Office recently announced that the proportions of asylum seekers going to each region will not be changing before September 2029.
Being an asylum dispersal area is voluntary and some Local Authorities in our region have over recent months been giving serious consideration to actively pursuing withdrawal. The current process of procurement for the new asylum system is making this outcome increasingly likely, whilst for potential new areas there is reduced incentive to join. We fear that the Home Office continuing the current approach risks catastrophic failure of the new asylum system as soon as it begins.
We request that you personally intervene to enable the Home Office to get a grip on the asylum system and enable them to work in partnership with, rather than exclude, Local Authorities. Fully involving Local Authorities in the strategic planning and commissioning of this service, as recommended by the Home Affairs Committee, will ensure we are able to jointly deliver a high quality, stable, functioning service for asylum seekers and local communities for which we share joint strategic responsibility.
An urgent meeting between you and Local Authority representatives from our region would be an excellent starting point for us to build this new relationship, offer reassurances, and enable us to continue offering protection to asylum seekers and refugees.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed by the leaders of the following local councils)
Barnsley
Bradford
Calderdale
Doncaster
East Riding
Hull
Kirklees
Leeds
North East Lincolnshire
North Yorkshire
Selby
Sheffield
Wakefield
York
