Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has reaffirmed plans to distribute asylum seekers more evenly across communities, including wealthier areas, stating a desire for a "fair spread" of migrants. This initiative aligns with Prime Minister Andy Burnham's recent commitment to ensure asylum seekers are not solely housed in the "poorest communities," emphasizing that middle-class areas should also "play their part."
Mahmood outlined a strategy for a mixed model of asylum accommodation, which includes utilizing military sites, former student apartments, bedsits, and houses of multiple occupation (HMOs). She acknowledged that transitioning to this model will take time but stressed that it aims to prevent any single type of community from bearing the disproportionate burden of asylum seeker housing.
"You've got to get a fair spread and what we are doing with the new model of asylum accommodation and the future of asylum accommodation is think carefully about how you have a fair spread that doesn't end up being in one community or one type of community," Mahmood told The Times.
Responding to concerns from residents near proposed asylum seeker sites, Mahmood, who represents Birmingham Ladywood, stated that the impact of demographic changes, housing alterations, and the transient nature of the asylum-seeking population affects communities regardless of their economic standing. She noted her personal understanding of these issues, having had asylum hotels and dispersal accommodation within her own constituency.
"The people in better off parts of the country, really the issues aren't that different to people who I represent in my patch," she added.
Burnham is reportedly prepared to proceed with relocating asylum seekers to more affluent areas, even if it incurs higher costs for taxpayers. The government is considering lifting restrictions on rent caps for private contractors providing asylum housing, which currently limit the types of properties contractors can propose. Higher rent caps could facilitate the placement of more migrants in more expensive neighborhoods.
As of the end of March this year, 97,519 individuals were receiving asylum support. Of these, 20,885 were housed in hotels, 3,866 received only subsistence support, and 72,768 were in other forms of accommodation, including dispersal housing. Recent analysis indicates that 17 local authority areas, such as the Cotswolds and the Scottish Highlands, currently have no asylum seekers receiving taxpayer support.
Burnham previously stated his opposition to a situation where "only the poorest communities in the country receive all of the dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers," asserting that "all parts of the country need to work, to play their part." This comes amid local opposition to plans for a former military base in Bicester, Oxfordshire, to house 1,250 male asylum seekers, prompting some residents of the nearby village of Piddington to consider a symbolic referendum on leaving the UK.