Home Office Spent £15 Million on Contaminated Asylum Accommodation: Spending Watchdog

A view of HMP Northeye in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, on March 30, 2023. PA Wire/PA Images

The Home Office spent £15.4 million on purchasing a disused prison that was “ultimately deemed unfit” to convert into asylum accommodation because it was contaminated with asbestos, the independent public spending watchdog has said.

The department had purchased HMP Northeye in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, last year, intending to convert it into accommodation for around 1,400 male illegal immigrants, through a mix of new buildings and refurbishments.

The National Audit Office’s (NAO’s) report published on Friday determined that the department cut corners in the acquisition process, lacked in-house expertise to quality-assure decisions during the purchase, and paid more than it needed to for the property.

Auditors said the department undertook the purchase in haste because of political pressure to stop housing illegal immigrants in hotels.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said the “rushed and misjudged decision-making has resulted in the Home Office overpaying for an asylum accommodation site that is not fit for purpose.”

Clifton-Brown added that the Public Accounts Committee will follow up on the issue “to ensure that continuous mistakes are not made and public money is not wasted in future acquisitions.”

Paid Double

Auditors said that after the Home Office had first been alerted to the possibility of using Northeye in May 2022, it entered negotiations with the site’s owners, Brockwell Group Bexhill Limited Liability Partnership.

The NAO said that the Home Office had “moved quickly” in the acquisition process, choosing to dispense with established protocols, such as undertaking a full business case before purchasing it.

Home Office officials had also rejected offers of expert advice from other parts of the government, instead opting for contractors, the auditors said.

The Home Office had completed the purchase of Northeye in September 2023, paying around £15.4 million. This was more than double than what the vendors had paid when they bought the site in August 2022 for around £6.3 million.

Contamination

Another check the department failed to order was a full assessment of remediation.

The NAO said that the amount and cost of remediation required at the site was underestimated prior to the Home Office becoming locked into the purchase, referencing a due diligence report from February 2023 which “indicated that repairs to buildings on the site could cost in excess of £20 million.”

A geo-environmental review, also from February 2023, had recommended further investigation after concluding there was a risk from asbestos-containing materials in existing buildings and contaminated ground.

Concluding, the auditors said: “The Home Office’s attempt to acquire the Northeye site within just a few months of adopting it onto the non-detained asylum accommodation programme led it to cut corners and make a series of poor decisions.

“This resulted in it purchasing a site that was unsuitable for that original purpose, and it paying more for it than it needed to.”

A view of HMP Northeye in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, on March 30, 2023. Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

Asylum System Under Strain

On July 26, the Home Office issued an update, saying that no decision had been made on the use of the property, and that the department “will consider its strategy and broader requirements before taking a view on the future use of the Northeye site.”

Responding to the report, the Home Office noted that the decisions covered were undertaken by the previous Conservative government.

The department said, “Having inherited an asylum system under exceptional strain, with tens of thousands of cases stuck in a backlog, we remain committed to ending the use of hotels.”

Instead, the department aims to house illegal immigrants in more suitable and cost-effective accommodation, “achieving better value for the taxpayer.”

“We are getting the asylum system moving again, increasing returns of people who have no right to be here, with over 9,000 people removed since July 2024. We will continue to restore order to the system so that it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly,” the Home Office added.

Government Scraps Accommodation Sites

After winning the July 4 election, Labour scrapped several of its Conservative predecessors’ illegal immigration and asylum policies, including plans to house illegal immigrants in large accommodations.

The Labour administration recently confirmed it would not renew the contract for the use of the Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset, with hundreds of asylum seekers being moved to hotels across the country.

It follows the decision in September to scrapped plans to move illegal immigrants onto RAF Scampton, formerly the home of the “Dambusters” squadron.

The government said it was abandoning these strategies because they did not reflect good value for money for the taxpayer.

The Home Office has previously said it expects demand for such accommodation to be reduced, as it works to reduce the backlog in asylum claims.

PA Media contributed to this report.