Asylum Seekers: Hotels

Baroness Sugg Excerpts

Monday 20th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sugg (Con)]

My Lords, the first issue I wish to address is the experience of women in asylum hotels. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, I will highlight the recent report from Women for Refugee Women, Coercion and Control, which was the first of its kind to specifically examine the treatment of asylum-seeking women in hotels. The noble Baroness explained some of the deeply concerning findings from the report.

The impact on women’s mental health is severe. According to the report, 91% of women felt anxious or depressed and nearly half had suicidal thoughts. As the Minister will be aware and as the noble Baroness highlighted, many of these women have fled horrific circumstances and endured a traumatic journey to the UK. What they are now experiencing in hotels only compounds their suffering. The report calls for an end to the use of hotel accommodation, immediate action to address its harmful effects and the provision of safe and supportive accommodation. I welcome the Government’s commitment to prioritise survivors of gender-based violence and ensure that they receive the support they need. Can the Minister reassure us that this will include survivors who are seeking asylum?

My second point concerns the financial impact of hotel costs on the UK’s important work overseas. In 2023, the Home Office was allocated nearly £3 billion, or 20% of official development assistance. The UK reports the highest costs per refugee of any country—over 30% higher than the next-highest country, Ireland, and 150% higher than the next-highest G7 country. These statistics highlight the need for urgent action to control costs. Of course I acknowledge that it was a previous Conservative Government which cut the development spend from 0.7% to 0.5%—a decision I deeply regret—but our in-country refugee costs, the vast majority being hotel costs, were partially offset by the previous Government in the 2022 Autumn Budget, with an additional £2.5 billion in ODA funding to help manage the pressure on refugee services. Despite comparable pressures now, this additional funding was not repeated by the Government in their Budget in the autumn, leaving the FCDO facing, yet again, significant and sudden cuts to its programmes.

I very much welcome the news earlier this month of an additional £540 million of funding for the FCDO, which, thankfully, avoids hitting a 17-year low in spending on our overseas programmes. This amount was from the increase in gross national income and a fall in spending on domestic refugee costs. I know that the Minister supports transparency in government spending, so can he clarify how much of this £540 million was due to the fall in spending on asylum hotels?

Success in our development work benefits not only the countries we work with but also us here at home. Done right, it can help to tackle many of the drivers of illegal migration in the first place. But it requires certainty and long-term planning—something that, sadly, has been impossible in recent years. This is yet another reason to urgently reduce the backlog and move to ending the use of hotels for asylum seekers.