The federal government is struggling to chop the billions of kilos of overseas assist partly used to deal with asylum seekers in motels, in response to new figures.
The £2.2bn Home Office estimate to spend £2.2bn of abroad improvement help (ODA) on this monetary 12 months is just barely lower than the £2.3bn spent in 2024/25.
The overwhelming majority is used for the lodging for asylum seekers who’ve arrived within the UK, with current figures displaying greater than 32,000 have been being housed in motels on the finish of March.
Labour has pledged “to finish the usage of asylum motels” and the federal government says it has lowered the general asylum help prices by half a billion kilos, together with £200m in ODA financial savings, which had been handed again to the Treasury.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has mentioned he’ll reduce the general ODA from its present stage of 0.5% of gross nationwide revenue (GNI) to 0.3% in 2027.
Foreign aid is meant to be spent on offering humanitarian and improvement help in different international locations, however the UK is allowed to rely refugee-hosting prices as ODA beneath internationally agreed guidelines.
Labour MP Sarah Champion beforehand mentioned a “scandalously great amount” of ODA has been diverted to the House Workplace and has referred to as for a cap on how a lot may be spent supporting asylum seekers and refugees within the UK.
Asylum seekers and their households are housed in short-term lodging if they’re ready for the end result of a declare or an attraction and have been assessed as not having the ability to help themselves independently.
They’re housed in motels if there may be not sufficient house in lodging supplied by native authorities or different organisations.
A House Workplace spokesperson mentioned: “We inherited an asylum system beneath distinctive strain, and are urgently taking motion to revive order, and scale back prices.
“This may in the end scale back the quantity of Official Improvement Help spent to help asylum seekers and refugees within the UK.
“We’re instantly rushing up selections and rising returns in order that we are able to finish the usage of motels and save the taxpayer £4bn by 2026.”
