Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans his Department has to grant local authorities more (a) flexibility and (b) powers in overseeing how and where asylum seekers are housed in their areas.

The Home Office is committed to working co-operatively with local authorities and communities to ensure the sustainability of asylum accommodation contracts.

Since September 2016 the Home Office has actively and extensively engaged with local authorities with a wide range of stakeholders across local government, statutory and third sector as part of the development of the new asylum accommodation contracts and the information obtained through this process has influenced the design of the future service provision.

Currently, when properties are identified for procurement by one of the existing providers, we consult with LAs before asylum seekers are accommodated. A number of factors will be considered in terms of clustering the supported asylum population, such as cohesion and anti social behaviour. We will continue to engage with local authorities and the wider community throughout the procurement and implementation of the new contracts to offer flexibility where possible.