The left-wing Labour Party government in Britain has reportedly launched an initiative to offer private landlords five-year deals to house illegal migrants as increased crossings of the English Channel have put further pressure on the asylum system.
Despite the housing crisis in the UK, which has prevented many young Britons from getting on the property ladder, taxpayers are likely to be footing the bill for more houses to be devoted to supposed asylum seekers.
According to a report from The Telegraph, Serco, a private contractor that assists the Home Office in dealing with illegal migrants and alleged asylum seekers, has begun contacting landlords, investment property owners, and real estate agents in the East of England, the Midlands, and the North West to offer taxpayer funded rental agreements to house migrants for up to five years.
In a message dubbed “Calling all landlords,” the firm told owners that they would be paid rent “on time every month” and that they would fund all repairs and maintenance of the houses, utility costs, and council tax bills.
While putting migrants up in private homes is considerably cheaper than in hotels, £14 a day compared to about £145, concerns have been raised that using taxpayer cash to expand the programme — started by the so-called Conservative Party over ten years ago — will further exacerbate the housing crisis.
A housing executive told the broadsheet: “It seems an unfair way to deal with the people in Britain who are struggling by taking away accommodation that they could benefit from.”
Currently, around 65,700 migrants are being housed by the government, the highest number in the past ten years. Approximately 38,000 of the migrants were being housed in hotels as of the end of the year, at a cost of around £5.5 million to the taxpayer every day.
Mass Deportations of Foreign Criminals and Illegal Migrants Supported by Overwhelming Majority of Britonshttps://t.co/ihnKQdG4mr
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 16, 2025
It has continued to rise under the Labour government despite promises to clamp down on illegal crossings and hotel accommodation, as Channel crossings have risen to record levels with nearly 10,000 landing on British shores since the start of the year, an increase of 45 per cent over last year and the most at this point of the year since the crisis began.
The report that the government is planning to expand its migrant “dispersal” programme to local properties throughout England came just days before voters across the country will head to the polls for council elections, in what will serve as the first major electoral test for Sir Kier Starmer’s Labour government since sweeping to power last July.
The failures of Labour, and indeed the Tories before them, to stop illegal and legal mass migration to the country has been a boon to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which has shot to the top of the polls and is looking to make major inroads at the local level next week towards their goal of becoming the next government.
In their best performance in any poll yet, a survey this week from Find Out Now put Reform at 28 per cent, compared to 20 per cent for both Labour and the Conservatives. Meanwhile, a record 47 per cent of the public believe that immigration has “been bad for Britain”, according to YouGov, compared to just 19 per cent, who said it had been “mostly good”.
Commenting on the plans to expand the use of private homes to house migrants, Reform deputy leader Richard Tice wrote on X: British people [are] sick [and] tired of British homes [and] hotels given free to illegals, at huge taxpayer expense, yet Starmer [is] giving up on the boats.
“Over 150,000 more will arrive over [the] next 4 years at this rate. Reform will win [the] next general election and remove these folk,” Tice vowed.
Farage Pledges Reform Government Would Create Ministry For Deportations https://t.co/6lN2KN7413
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 25, 2025