The city council warned that it “couldn’t support additional asylum seekers” – then learned that hundreds were being housed without its knowledge.
The city authority only discovered the HMOs last week (Image: Getty)
Officials in a UK seaside city have learned that hundreds of asylum seekers were moved into rental properties after they told the Home Office it didn’t have the capacity to house any more. Portsmouth City Council discovered that 55 homes of multiple occupation (HMO) were being used to house a minimum of three asylum seekers each across the city last week. It came two years after the council’s director of housing James Hill told the Home Office that existing capacity was “such that we couldn’t support additional asylum seekers”.
However, a public meeting held by Amanda Martin, the Labour MP for Portsmouth North, in July revealed that the number of private rentals being used to house migrants had risen from 10 at the end of 2019 to 58 in April 2024. The Home Office confirmed that the actual figure was 55 last week, The Times reports.
Portsmouth City Council said it was not notified about the decision to use private rentals to house migrants – and the data was only uncovered by Ms Martin after Clearspring Ready Homes, a company subcontracted by the Home Office to provide asylum seeker accommodation, took part in a parliamentary inquiry in June.
“We were previously not aware of the number of properties being used in the city,” a spokesperson said. “We have made it clear that the processes [the Home Office] has are not adequate and they should be formally notifying a senior officer.”
While the Home Office has no legal obligation to inform local authorities about using HMOs for asylum seeker accommodation, councils have suggested they should be notified in case the move puts a strain on resources or causes community tensions.
A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “We are continuing to expand the use of dispersal accommodation as part of our strategy to reduce reliance on costly hotels and deliver a more sustainable and cost-effective asylum system.
Amanda Martin (left) with Dame Diana Johnson, Home Office Minister (Image: PA)
“This approach is being implemented in close consultation with local authorities across the UK to ensure dispersal is balanced and community needs and concerns are taken into account.
“The Government inherited an asylum system in chaos, with tens of thousands of asylum seekers stuck in the backlog being housed by the taxpayer. At its peak, less than two years ago, there were 400 asylum hotels in use at a cost of almost £9 million a day.
“We have taken urgent action to fix the system – more than doubling asylum decisions and cutting the backlong by 41%.
“The cost of asylum hotels was reduced by almost a billion pounds in 2024/25 compared to the previous year, and we have put in place the major reforms which will allow us to end the use of asylum hotels entirely by the end of this Parliament.”
