Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has reinforced Prime Minister Andy Burnham's pledge to distribute asylum seekers more evenly across the country, stating a desire for a "fair spread" of migrants. This approach aims to prevent asylum seekers from being concentrated solely in the "poorest communities."
Mahmood outlined a strategy for a mixed model of asylum accommodation, which would incorporate military sites, former student apartments, bedsits, and houses in multiple occupation. She acknowledged that transitioning to this model would take time but emphasized that it would ensure "no one type of community is bearing the brunt."
"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 living near proposed new asylum seeker sites, Mahmood stated that the impact of demographic and housing changes due to asylum seekers affects communities regardless of their economic standing. As the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood, a constituency that has experienced asylum hotels and dispersal accommodation, she said she understands the anxieties residents may have.
"I get it, I understand that these are things that worry people and I get where they're coming from," Mahmood said. "The people in better off parts of the country, really the issues aren't that different to people who I represent in my patch."
Burnham is reportedly prepared to proceed with plans to house asylum seekers in more affluent areas, even if it incurs higher costs for taxpayers. The government is considering an increase to the rent caps for private-sector contractors providing asylum housing. These caps currently limit contractors from proposing higher-cost properties, which are often found in middle-class neighborhoods. Raising the cap would facilitate the relocation of more migrants to more expensive areas, a move the Prime Minister is said to support "as a point of principle" despite potential increased expenditure.
As of the end of March this year, Home Office figures indicated that 97,519 individuals were receiving asylum support. Of these, 20,885 were housed in hotels, and 3,866 received only subsistence support. The remaining 72,768 were accommodated in "other" facilities, including dispersal accommodations typically consisting of flats or houses adapted as houses in multiple occupation.
An analysis by the Daily Mail identified 17 local authority areas, including the Cotswolds and the Scottish Highlands, where no taxpayer-supported asylum seekers are currently housed. Burnham had previously stated that he did not want a situation where "it's only the poorest communities in the country that receive all of the dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers."
"I do believe all parts of the country need to work, to play their part," Burnham added, referencing local opposition to plans for a former military base in Bicester, Oxfordshire, to house 1,250 male asylum seekers. Residents of Piddington, a village near the proposed Bicester site, have voted to hold a symbolic referendum on leaving the UK in protest against the plans.