Challenging the Privatisation of Housing for Refugees: Towards Safe and Dignified Accommodation for People Seeking Asylum in the UK
The failures of private contracting for asylum housing in the UK
Did you know that since 2019, nearly all housing for asylum seekers in the UK has been provided by just three private sector companies – Clearsprings Ready Homes, Mears Group and Serco, with a shocking track record over the delivery of these contracts?
From Jan 2019 to present:
- Housing options have worsened significantly: shifting from private flats and houses that supported integration into local communities to cramped and substandard hotel rooms – with shared or no cooking facilities, and often in isolating conditions.
- This has led to significant harm to people seeking safety and forced to live in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, which has been repeatedly documented by journalists, charities, medical staff and people seeking asylum themselves.
- And yet, the costs per person charged to the UK Home Office has more than doubled – surging from £17k to £41k per person in just four years.
- As a result, the UK Home Office spent an astonishing £4.7 billion on housing for people seeking asylum in 2023/24 – over six times the £739 million spent in 2019/20.
So in summary, under private contracting for asylum accommodation, the quality of housing has plummeted, the cost to UK Government has soared and yet – private contractors have posted healthy year-on-year profits. Clearsprings Ready Homes, just one of the three providers, for example, has posted profits of £90 million in a single year, on the back of these contracts.
How can we break the cycle?
As things stand, these private contracts are due to run to 2029; however, there is an opportunity for UK Government to exercise a break clause in these contracts in 2026 – and recently, news emerged that the Home Office may be keen to re-negotiate or end these contracts, next year.
However, significant work needs to be done to scope and pilot viable alternatives to the current system – and this will require close, thoughtful and determined coordination across third sector and local authority actors, as well as a commitment from the UK Home Office to provide flexible, supportive and consistent financial resourcing.
A number of third sector organisations on the ground are actively involved in campaigning for positive change, calling for:
- Minimum standards for safe, dignified homes
- Design and accountability to be led by people with experience of the asylum system
- Focus on safeguarding and making sure that people’s individual needs are taken into account and reflected in the housing options they are offered
But how do we get there from here?
In 2024, Lawmanity was commissioned by Migration Exchange to explore opportunities to influence how these asylum accommodation and support contracts are delivered, contracted and held accountable.
We concluded that there is a significant opportunity – in 2025 – to push for improvements in contractual terms and build a solid case for ending private contracting for asylum housing and services, but to leverage this opportunity, further private charitable and public sector funding and support is urgently needed, in order to:
- Support coordination between key actors campaigning for change
- Provide technical expertise on housing and homelessness models that could work
- Provide legal expertise on public contracting and remedies
- Fund meaningful involvement of people with lived and living experience of asylum accommodation at every stage of development, execution and evaluation
- Connect campaigners with local authorities, policymakers, politicians and decisionmakers that can support and launch pilots of viable alternatives to the current contracts
Got an idea? Want to help find a solution? Get in touch!
Following on from this work, Lawmanity will continue to work with Migration Exchange through April 2025, to support organisations and funders to channel resources proactively in ways that will help to capture this opportunity to significantly improve the lives of people seeking asylum in the UK asylum support system.
If you are interested in discussing further this work, or how Lawmanity might be able to support you – as a charity sector organisation, or a funder – please get in touch with us at jen@lawmanity.com.