Student blocks leased by Home Office to house migrants empty for year
The blocks were built in 2019 for Huddersfield University students and feature 'spacious' studio bedrooms, dining rooms, kitchens and a gym, but have never been used.
They were leased for an estimated £7 million in spring 2024 by the Tory government to provide a cheaper alternative to hotels for asylum seekers. However, they are still empty with no final decision on when migrants might be moved in.
Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, has pledged to axe the use of hotels for asylum seekers by the end of the Parliament in four years' time.
At the end of March 2025 there were more than 32,000 asylum seekers in hotels, costing up to £6 million a day, out of a total government bill for asylum accommodation and support of £3.6 billion for the current year.
It is understood negotiations are under way between Home Office and local council officials to place asylum seekers in the blocks but a source familiar with the talks said a decision on moving them in was 'months away'.
It is part of attempts by Labour to use alternative 'mid-sized' sites including empty tower blocks, former student accommodation or vacant college buildings as an alternative to hotels.
The new strategic partnerships would see accommodation either be owned by councils and leased to the Government for asylum use or secured by the Government and leased to local authorities.
A Home Office spokesman said: 'Decisions on the future use of accommodation sites will be made in due course in consultation with local authorities and other stakeholders.
'This [Huddersfield] lease agreement was agreed before the election and change of government. No asylum seekers will be moved into the site until it is ready for occupancy, including meeting legal and building regulations.'
The Huddersfield student blocks were one of four large sites identified for asylum seekers by the last government. They included the Bibby barge in Portland and former RAF bases at Scampton in Lincolnshire and Wethersfield in Essex.
Labour shut down the Bibby and handed Scampton back to the local council, which now plans to turn the former Dambusters' squadron base into a national heritage site and aviation hub. Wethersfield is still being used to house hundreds of asylum seekers.
The Home Office earmarked £358 million to use the Huddersfield blocks until 2034, according to the National Audit Office, which had access to internal data. This included running costs of £24.7 million a year and £7.1 million for 'site acquisition, lease and set up' in 2024/25. The Home Office said these were estimates and the actual cost was lower.
After the blocks were built in 2019, they were issued with a prohibition notice following the Grenfell Tower fire as their cladding and internal fire protection works were judged unsafe.
Remedial work costing almost £12 million – including refurbishing the studio bedrooms – was carried out in 2023 ready for student accommodation that September until the Home Office secured the site for asylum seekers.
The Home Office denied at the time that students had been kicked out.
'Students who had enquired about the accommodation prior to Home Office involvement were informed by the housing company that they would need to seek alternative options,' it said.
The Home Office interest came amid a growing backlash against asylum hotels. The numbers of migrants in hotels hit a high of 56,042 in September 2023 at a cost of £8 million a day. The Tories suggested then that migrants could move into the site in autumn 2024 but then lost the election. Labour has been reviewing asylum sites since inheriting the four 'big' sites from the Tories.
A Home Office spokesman said: 'We inherited an asylum system under exceptional pressure and are urgently taking action to restore order and reduce costs, having already made asylum savings of half a billion.
'We are making strong strides to deliver a more sustainable and cost-effective asylum accommodation system. This includes ending the use of hotels, testing new locally led models and working closely with local authorities and other departments to ensure a fairer, more efficient approach that supports both individuals and communities.'
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