According to a National Audit Office (NAO) analysis, the Home Office would have to pay £1.2 billion, or £46 million more, than it would if asylum seekers were housed on boats or former RAF sites while awaiting their verdicts.
Even while it’s anticipated that £230 million would have been spent by the end of March to create four alternative sites, only two have opened up to this point, and by the end of January, they were only accommodating about 900 people.
Following this, the Home Office has been rated as “red” in performance evaluations, indicating that its delivery targets are “unachievable”.
While the government has “made progress” in reducing the number of hotels from 398 to 60 before January, according to NAO chief Gareth Davies, it has also “incurred losses and increased risk” by “rapidly progressing its plans to establish large sites”.
He demanded that the Home Office “improve coordination” and “reflect on lessons learned” with local law enforcement.
