Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the potential impact of the repurposing of hotels as asylum accommodation on the number of jobs in the accommodation sector in each of the last three years.

The Home Office has a legal obligation to provide destitute asylum seekers with accommodation and subsistence support whilst their application for asylum is being considered. The Home Office is committed to ensuring that destitute asylum seekers are housed in safe, secure and suitable accommodation, and that they are treated with dignity while their asylum claim is considered.

There is no obligation for hotels to contract with Home Office accommodation providers. This Government is delivering on its pledge to close asylum hotels; drastically reducing taxpayer costs and giving control back to local communities.

From over 400 asylum hotels open in summer 2023, costing almost £9 million a day, there are now less than 210, and we want them all closed by the end of this Parliament.