Fury as asylum seekers at former RAF base to
Campaigners seeking a Government u-turn on the decision to house migrants in a small Yorkshire village claim that taxpayers would be left with a £500 daily cost per occupant if given the green light. Residents opposing the plans to place more than 1,200 asylum seekers at the former RAF base at Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, have used National Audit Office (NAO) figures from previous schemes abandoned over cost fears.
In a 27-page submission appealing the housing of migrants in their 600 person village, campaigners claim that they would be left outnumbered two to one and exposed to potential safeguarding risks. Olga Matthias, a spokesman for the Linton-on-Ouse Action Group, said: “The projected costs simply do not match the standard of care required for asylum seekers, nor do they represent an effective use of taxpayer funds with the cost per night being much higher than any other alternative.
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“Yes, solutions need to be found, but in areas with existing infrastructure and asylum services where the huge investment for refitting, upgrading water, electric and sewage infrastructure is not required.”
Residents claim housing each migrant would cost more than three times the current £145-a-night bill for asylum seekers staying in hotels, and around 20 times the £23.25-a-night budget for standard “dispersal” accommodation such as houses of multiple occupation.
Linton-on-Ouse is one of three former military sites Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has proposed converting into asylum accommodation for up to 3,750 migrants. The other locations are RAF Barnham in Suffolk and MoD Bicester.
Two existing asylum sites on Ministry of Defence land — RAF Crowborough in Sussex and RAF Wethersfield in Essex — are also set to expand, providing space for a further 1,750 asylum seekers. Their leases are expected to be extended for up to another four years.
Campaigners based their calculations on National Audit Office projections for RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, a similarly decommissioned military base that the previous Conservative government had planned to turn into asylum accommodation.
Labour scrapped the Scampton scheme after taking office, saying it did not represent value for money.
But campaigners in Linton-on-Ouse argue the similarities between the two former RAF bases make Scampton the “most accurate financial benchmark available” for estimating how much their site could cost to convert and operate.
NAO figures suggested the Scampton scheme would have cost £403.4million over two years.
Using those figures, the group calculated that even if Linton-on-Ouse were filled at the fastest proposed rate of 60 new arrivals a week, the cost would work out at £408.40 per migrant per night.
They said a more realistic 27-month timetable before the site became operational would push the estimated cost even higher, to £527.81 per migrant per night.
The group added: “The financial justification for the Linton-on-Ouse asylum centre collapses under basic scrutiny. Far from providing a cost-effective alternative to the current system, this proposal represents an astronomical and fundamentally unviable drain on the public purse.”
The Daily Express has approached the Home Office for comment but Border Security and Asylum Minister Alex Norris previously said: “We promised to close every asylum hotel and hand them back to communities, and that is exactly what we are doing.
“Twenty more hotels have closed, and hotel numbers have more than halved since their peak. Instead, we’re moving asylum seekers into ex-military sites that are a far cry from the hotels the last Government left us with.
“This is a system being brought back under control – and we will not stop until the job is done.”
A Home Office source added that the government is accelerating plans to scale up the use of former military sites for asylum seekers to remove the incentives that draw illegal migrants to Britain and scale up removals of those with no right to be here.
They added: “As part of plans to use larger, basic and more suitable accommodation sites to house asylum seekers, discussions have begun to use three new former MOD sites to house asylum seekers, with planning permission being sought at MOD Bicester, MOD Barnham and MOD Linton-on-Ouse. Together, these new sites could eventually house around 3,750 asylum seekers.
“Meanwhile, the Government is seeking to extend the use of existing sites, including Crowborough until 2030 and Wethersfield beyond 2027. Capacity at Wethersfield will also expand, increasing bedspaces to over 1,200.”