The Home Office is ending a company’s contract to provide accommodation for asylum seekers.
Stay Belvedere Hotels (SBHL) houses people waiting for asylum decisions in 51 hotels in England and Wales, as well as the Napier Barracks in Folkestone, Kent, which is due to close and be returned to the Ministry of Defence in September.
The decision to end the contract comes with immediate effect after a review of all contracts to provide asylum accommodation.
Asylum seekers currently living in SBHL sites will be moved to other housing across the asylum estate.
The review raised concerns about the company’s performance and behaviour, according to a Home Office statement, which said the safety and security of people staying and working in temporary accommodation was a government priority, as well as ensuring value for money.
SBHL is a sub-contractor of a wider Home Office agreement with provider Clearsprings, which was awarded in 2019 and is worth around £2 billion a year.
The Times has also reported that the Home Office will bring in the company which managed the Bibby Stockholm, Corporate Travel Management.
Minister for border security and asylum Angela Eagle said: “Since July, we have improved contract management and added more oversight of our suppliers of asylum accommodation.
“We have made the decision to remove Stay Belvedere Hotels from the Home Office supply chain and will not hesitate to take further action to ensure Home Office contracts deliver for the UK.”
The Home Office, which is committed to ending the use of asylum hotels, said it was working to “put robust plans in place” to minimise disruption.
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook told Times Radio he would not provide “the specifics” of why the Home Office cancelled the contract but that “operational details are being worked out”.
He added: “We did need to review these disastrous contracts on asylum accommodation we inherited. We’re doing so to improve management and guarantee value for money for the taxpayer.”
Some 38,079 asylum seekers were being housed temporarily in UK hotels at the end of December 2024, according to the latest data from the Home Office.
This is up 2,428 from 35,651 at the end of September.
It is the second quarterly rise in a row although the total is still some way below the recent peak of 56,042 at the end of September 2023.
Asked by Times Radio when the numbers would go down, Mr Pennycook would not say when using hotels will end amid a “huge backlog” of asylum cases to process.
“If we are going to work through that backlog… then we have got to deal with that problem in the short term,” he said.
“I’m not going to give you a timeline today on when the use of hotels will end.”
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