Housing migrants in RAF camp ‘costs more than hotels’

HOUSING migrants in an RAF camp may cost more than hotels, ministers were warned in internal memos.

Senior officials said there was a “significant” risk the plan to turn former RAF base at Wethersfield, near Braintree, Essex, into a camp for asylum seekers would not offer “value for money”, according to Home Office documents.

They estimated that the cost per migrant per night at the Wethersfield site was between £133 and £167, compared with a hotel rate for housing migrants of £142.

This calculation was, however, based on “high-level initial estimates for occupancy in the first year”. So far, only around 600 migrants have been moved onto the camp, which the officials proposed should have a capacity of 1,700 asylum seekers with an 85 per cent occupancy rate at any one time.

The doubts about its value for money were revealed in documents released as part of a judicial review of the plans by local councils that oppose them. Home Secretary James Cleverly is the local MP for Wethersfield and has criticised it as an unsuitable site due to lack of road infrastructure and remoteness.

It is one of three mass accommodation sites for migrants aimed at reducing the £8 million a day cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels. The other two are RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, which has yet to open, and the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset.

The documents make clear the argument for ensuring they offered value for money is dependent on the sites operating over a three- to five-year period.

A Home Office spokesman maintained the cost estimates were “significantly overestimated, outdated and pre-contractual”.

Although the Home Office declined to say whether it was offering value for money, the spokesman said: “Delivering accommodation on surplus military sites provides suitable accommodation for those arriving in small boats while reducing the use of hotels which cost more than £8 million a day.”