UK Asylum Spending 2024/25: Where Does the £11.8 Billion Go?
The United Kingdom spends approximately £11.8 billion per year on its asylum and immigration system. That figure, drawn from National Audit Office reports and Home Office publications, spans multiple government departments and covers everything from hotel accommodation to legal aid. This article breaks down exactly where the money goes.
The Headline Figures
The £11.8 billion annual cost is not a single budget line. It is spread across the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Ministry of Defence (for military site usage), and local authorities. This cross-departmental nature is precisely what makes it so difficult for the average taxpayer to understand the full picture.
£32.3M
Spent per day
£374
Per second (based on annual figure)
133,409
People awaiting asylum decisions
£170
Average cost per person per day
Sources: National Audit Office, Home Office Immigration Statistics September 2024, Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford.
Category Breakdown
The largest single cost category is hotel and contingency accommodation, which accounts for approximately 76% of the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contract (AASC) budget. The government signed contracts with providers such as Serco, Mears, and Clearsprings Ready Homes to house asylum seekers while their claims are processed.
Hotel and Accommodation
~£4.5BThis covers hotel block bookings, initial accommodation centres, dispersed housing, and the Bibby Stockholm barge. At peak usage in late 2023, over 400 hotels across England were being used to house asylum seekers. The Home Office has since closed some sites, but as of early 2025, approximately 222 locations remain active.
Border Operations
~£1.8BBorder Force operations in the English Channel, including search and rescue missions, interceptions, and port of entry processing. This also includes the cost of cooperation agreements with France, which have totalled over £500 million since 2018 to fund French beach patrols and surveillance technology.
Healthcare and Services
~£2.1BNHS healthcare for asylum seekers, including GP registrations, mental health services, TB and HIV screening, maternity care, and A&E usage. The Department of Health and Social Care reimburses NHS trusts for costs associated with patients who are not ordinarily resident in the UK.
Legal and Processing
~£1.9BLegal aid for asylum claims and appeals, Home Office caseworker salaries, immigration tribunal costs, interpreter services, and the cost of maintaining the asylum decision infrastructure. The backlog of cases awaiting an initial decision stood at over 118,000 as of September 2024.
Local Authority and Resettlement
~£1.5BPayments to local authorities for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme administration, and the Asylum Dispersal Grant paid to councils who accept dispersed accommodation in their areas.
Why the Cost Has Risen
Between 2019 and 2024, the annual cost of the asylum system more than tripled. Several factors drove this increase:
- 1.Small boat arrivals surged. Channel crossings went from 299 in 2018 to over 45,000 in 2022, overwhelming the existing asylum accommodation estate and forcing the Home Office into emergency hotel use.
- 2.Processing backlogs grew. The longer people wait for a decision, the longer they stay in taxpayer-funded accommodation. Average waiting times exceeded 12 months for many applicants.
- 3.Hotels are expensive. Emergency hotel procurement bypassed normal commercial rates. The NAO found that the Home Office was paying significantly above market rates for some hotel contracts.
- 4.Multiple resettlement schemes overlapped. The Afghan scheme, the Ukraine sponsorship scheme, and the standard asylum system all required accommodation simultaneously.
What Happens Next
The current government has stated its intention to reduce hotel usage by processing claims faster and moving asylum seekers into dispersed accommodation. However, as of early 2025, hotel closures have been slower than projected. The backlog remains substantial, and Channel crossing numbers, while lower than the 2022 peak, continue to add new arrivals into the system.
The National Audit Office has recommended that the Home Office improve its forecasting of accommodation demand, negotiate better hotel contract terms, and accelerate casework processing to reduce the time individuals spend in the system. Whether these recommendations translate into meaningful cost reductions remains to be seen.
Sources
- National Audit Office — Investigation into asylum accommodation (2024)
- Home Office — Immigration Statistics, year ending September 2024
- Migration Observatory, University of Oxford — Asylum and refugee resettlement in the UK
- House of Commons Library — Asylum accommodation: hotels (2024)
- HM Treasury — Main Supply Estimates 2024-25
For a full list of all sources used across this site, visit our Data Sources page.