MigrationWatchdog

What the asylum system costs

There is no machine-readable government dataset for asylum costs — so every figure on this page is a curated citation from a National Audit Office report, quoted verbatim and linked. Nothing here is estimated by us.

£4.7bn
asylum support, FY 2023-24
FY 2023-24 · source
£3.1bn
of which hotels, FY 2023-24
FY 2023-24 · source
£4bn
asylum support, FY 2024-25
FY 2024-25 · source
£4.9bn
total HO + MoJ asylum spend, FY 2024-25
FY 2024-25 · source

The accommodation contracts: 3.4× the original estimate

£4.5bn
original 10-year estimate
→
£15.3bn
current 10-year estimate
“It originally estimated that the total contract cost would be £4.5 billion over 10 years. However, the current estimated total is £15.3 billion over the same period.”
2019–2029 contract term · source

The Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts (AASC) run 2019–2029 across seven regional contracts. The red figure marks the series' record escalation — the one thing on this site red is reserved for.

76%
Hotels' share of asylum accommodation contract cost
“People accommodated in hotels account for around 35% of all people in asylum accommodation and for around 76% of the cost of the contracts (£1.3 billion out of an estimated £1.7 billion in the first seven months of 2024-25).”
first seven months of FY 2024-25 · source

35% of the people account for 76% of the cost.

106,500
People in Home Office accommodation, December 2023
“By December 2023, it was providing accommodation for around 106,500 people, including 45,800 in hotels.”
December 2023 · source

Approximate figure as stated by the NAO.

Written off — from the department's own accounts

The Home Office's audited annual accounts disclose losses on asylum accommodation it bought or booked and never used. Quoted verbatim from the losses-and-special-payments note.

£23m
Atrium Hotel written off unused
“Atrium Hotel in Hounslow, London was procured in August 2025 on a 9-month contract to meet an expected surge in asylum demand that would have placed risk on the Manston processing site failing its legal operational standards. In the event a combination of operational efficiency initiatives and demand not meeting the anticipated levels meant the additional capacity was not required, this resulted in a constructive loss of £22.9 million.”
FY 2025-26 · source

The department's own audited accounts, p.223.

£15m
Northeye site written off
“Ex Ministry of Defence site Northeye, Bexhill in East Sussex was purchased for intended use as asylum seeker accommodation but was unable to be used due to excessive costs to remediate the site … The cost required to remedy the site ahead of making available for development has meant the Department did not recoup any of the outlay on the site resulting in a constructive loss of £14.9 million.”
FY 2025-26 · source

The department's own audited accounts, p.223. An ex-gratia payment of £1.8 million is disclosed alongside.

What the money houses today

The spending above supports 97,519 asylum seekers in receipt of Home Office support (as at 31 March 2026), of whom 20,885 are in contingency hotels — down from a peak of 56,018 (as at 30 Sep 2023) on the Home Office's own series, yet hotels still absorb a share of contract cost far out of proportion to the people they house.

as at 31 Mar 2026 · source
How to read these figures
Cost figures are nominal £ for the financial year stated; they come from different NAO reports published at different times and are not a single reconciled series. FY periods (April–March) differ from the year-ending-March periods used in the arrivals statistics. Support-population counts are point-in-time snapshots.

Citations last reviewed

Sources for this page