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Social landlords reject Home Office offer of asylum seeker contracts
Local authorities and housing associations told the government they did not want to take up contracts to provide housing for asylum seekers from the private sector, Inside Housing understands.
Contracts for asylum seeker accommodation in the UK expire next year and the government has been procuring new providers for the period from 2019 to 2029.
As part of that process, a Home Office source told Inside Housing, it held round tables, one-on-ones and sent letters to local authorities and housing associations to see if they were interested in directly providing housing to asylum seekers.
According to the source, there was “a lack of interest” and so the Home Office decided the private sector should continue to provide asylum seeker accommodation.
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One local authority source, however, described the level of engagement as “minuscule” and pointed out that the Home Office didn’t include local authorities in its market engagement – only the following consultation.
The news comes as a report from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration found that less than a quarter of asylum seeker accommodation is compliant with standards.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We undertook extensive engagement with local authorities, devolved governments and housing associations to seek their views on the provision of asylum accommodation.”
At the moment, housing for asylum seekers is provided by the outsourcing companies G4S, Serco and Clearsprings.
In May, however, the Home Office revealed in a notice to the Official Journal of the European Union that it had received “no compliant bids” for Northern Ireland or Yorkshire and the Humber.
The Home Office relaunched the procurement process for those regions, and it is still ongoing, although the uncertainty around it has caused some councils to put on hold their plans to join the asylum seeker housing scheme.
Helen Greig, external affairs manager at the National Housing Federation, said: “There are well-documented concerns with the current contracts for providing accommodation to asylum seekers. Housing associations are interested in engaging in discussions with local authority colleagues and the Home Office about how these contracts could be improved for the future.
“There continues to be a number of housing associations around the country who are providing accommodation and support to refugees and asylum seekers, outside of the existing Home Office contracts and with the involvement of local government.”
