Stolen from from the latest briefing by AsylumMatters:
Local Authority leaders from Yorkshire and Humberside wrote a joint letter to Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, warning that the current procurement process for the new asylum accommodation contracts risks “catastrophic failure” after it was revealed over the summer that there were no successful bids for the contract in Yorkshire, as well as in the North East and Northern Ireland.
It received quite substantial coverage in the Yorkshire Post
New bidders are now being sought for the 10-year contract, leading to fears that local authorities may have to accept higher numbers of asylum seekers and poorer quality accommodation so the Government can persuade a company to run the scheme.
The council leaders also say they are being increasingly side-lined and that many towns and cities across the North each have more asylum seekers “clustered in a handful of wards than entire regions in the South and East of the country”.
Further reports of asylum accommodation standards have also been in the news with a focus of filthy conditions in a property in Birmingham, which is managed by G4S. On a visit to Scotland, Jeremy Corbyn was asked about asylum accommodation in relation to the threat of lock changes by Serco, to which he replied, “I don’t think Serco should be managing this contract. It should either be done by local authorities or charity groups doing it in the public interest.”
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