The Home Office sparked fresh controversy over the weekend when it formally called on landlords to house asylum seekers to help cope with a record number of migrants.
Serco, one of the three private contractors working for the Home Office, has offered landlords five-year guaranteed full rent deals at the taxpayers’ expense if they agree to house asylum seekers, according to reports.
More than 8,000 migrants have arrived in the UK this year after crossing the English Channel in small boats reached, according to the Home Office.
Serco, in a website page titled “calling all landlords”, said it was responsible for more than 30,000 asylum seekers in an “ever growing” portfolio of some 7,000 properties.
“Our operating model is based on leasing properties from a wide network of landlords, investors and agents with Serco acting as a tenant,” the website page states.
Landlords interested in the five-year lease have been invited to a Serco event at a hotel in Malvern Hills, Worcestershire, next month, The Daily Telegraph reported. They are reportedly seeking landlords with properties in the north west, the Midlands, and the east of England.
Serco said: “We are confident that our lease provision offers an attractive and competitive proposition within the industry.”
The firm is offering to pay rent, as well as full repair and maintenance, free property management and utilities and council tax bills paid by Serco.
Housing migrants in private rented accommodation is dramatically cheaper than in hotel accommodation. The Institute for Public Policy Research think tank estimated a hotel stay costs the taxpayer £145 per night on average, compared to £14 for private rented accommodation.
A Home Office spokesman told the press: “We have a statutory duty to support destitute asylum seekers who will not be able to pay for fees such as utilities and council tax.
“We are restoring order to the asylum system and cutting costs to taxpayers by reducing the number of people we are required to accommodate through a rapid increase in asylum decision-making and the removal of more than 24,000 people with no right to be in the UK.”
