Home Secretary targeting ‘fair spread’ of asylum accommodation across country
Shabana Mahmood announced that migrants would be housed in wealthier communities to ensure a 'fair spread' of asylum accomodation across the country
Shabana Mahmood has announced that she wants to ensure a “fairer spread” of asylum accommodation as the government begins to house migrants in wealthier areas.
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The Home Secretary said that the government wants a “mixed model” of asylum accommodation, including large military sites, medium-sized buildings such as old student accommodation, and dispersal housing, including bedsits and homes of multiple occupancy.
She told the Times it would likely take time to “transition” but would make sure “no type of community is bearing the brunt”.
Mahmood said that she “understands” the concerns felt by people living near the proposed accommodation, but emphasised the importance of sharing the responsibility around fairly.
Read more: Migrants given booklet telling them 'not to rape women and girls'
The home secretary, whose constituency of Birmingham Ladywood is one of the poorest in the country, said: “In a way it doesn’t really matter whether you’re in an affluent part of the country or in a more deprived constituency like mine. A change in the population, the demographic and in the housing in which asylum seekers are often housed and the transient nature of that population does have an impact on communities.”
“You’re talking to someone who’s had asylum hotels in my constituency, and lots of dispersal accommodation in my own patch and my own city as well. I know these issues well; I know how residents feel about them.
“I get it, I understand that these are things that worry people and I get where they’re coming from. The people in better-off parts of the country, really the issues aren’t that different to people who I represent in my patch.”
She added: “You’ve got to get a fair spread and what we are doing with the new model of asylum accommodation and the future of asylum accommodation is think carefully about how you have a fair spread that doesn’t end up being in one community or one type of community.”
This comes as the Home Office has shared new guidance for asylum seekers to assimilate into British society, including warnings not to rape or sexually harass people, including partners and children.
The document, titled “Understanding behaviours and expectations in the UK: A guide for asylum seekers”, mentions that women are allowed to “earn their own money” and “make their own decisions about their lives”.
It is expected that housing asylum seekers in wealthier areas will cost the Home Office more, and ministers are thought to be considering raising strict caps on how much the department can pay landlords for the accommodation.
These limits have been blamed for the unfair spread of asylum seekers being housed in poorer areas of the country.
The Home Secretary has also announced that she has been in talks to make the £660 million one-in, one-out deal with France permanent, ahead of its scheduled expiry in October.
As a result of the scheme, a total of 1,087 migrants have been deported - marking less than 4 per cent of small boat arrivals, and 1,117 asylum seekers have been moved to the UK.
Mahmood has defended the deal after criticism that French police were failing to intervene to stop migrant boats.