Rachel Reeves vows to end use of 'costly' hotels to house asylum seekers - but not for up to four years
has vowed to end the 'costly' use of hotels to house asylum-seekers – but not for up to four years.
In her Spending Review speech, the Chancellor said migrants would be moved out of hotels by the end of the current Parliament, with the next general election not due until 2029.
She also promised £1billion of savings by speeding up the asylum system, along with £280million more investment in future years for the new Border Security Command.
'The party opposite left behind a broken system: billions of pounds of taxpayers' money spent on housing asylum seekers in hotels, leaving people in limbo and shunting the cost of failure onto local communities. We won't let that stand,' Ms Reeves told the Commons.
'So I can confirm today that, led by the work of the Home Secretary, we will be ending the costly use of hotels to house asylum seekers in this Parliament.'
But the Tories said taking asylum-seekers out of hotels would simply move them into rented accommodation across the country, while speeding up asylum decisions would mean more people granted leave to remain.
Julia Lopez wrote on Twitter/X: 'The Home Office just wants people off their books as fast as possible - straight onto the books of local councils.
'That means more positive asylum decisions - only making it more attractive to cross. And so it will go on.'
Shadow Home Office minister Matt Vickers added: 'Rachel Reeves claims Labour will ' end the use of asylum hotels '.
'But if they won't commit to deport all illegal immigrants, where will they go? Coming to a house on your street?'
Latest figures show £3.1billion was spent on housing asylum-seekers in hotels in 2023-24, out of a total asylum support bill of £4.7bn.
More than 30,000 asylum-seekers are currently housed in about 200 hotels across Britain, and ministers are currently looking at moving them into derelict tower blocks and student digs instead.
The Spending Review document published by HM Treasury shows the Home Office's budget will fall by 2.2 per cent in real terms over the next few years, from £22billion in the current financial year to just £22.3bn in 2028-29.
Earlier this week Downing Street was forced to deny claims that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was on 'resignation watch' after heated discussions with the Chancellor over her department's budget.
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