Bibby Stockholm: Asylum Accommodation Barge Profile
The Bibby Stockholm was a three-deck accommodation barge moored at Portland Port in Dorset between August 2023 and January 2025. It was used to house unaccompanied adult men (no women, children or families) seeking asylum in the UK. Its eighteen months in service were defined by a legionella outbreak within days of arrival, the death of a man onboard in December 2023, and a National Audit Office finding that large sites like the barge cost more per person than hotels.
Cumulative taxpayer spend
£45,645,000
Total spend August 2023 to January 2025: £45,645,000 (+ £83,000 ancillary)
- Asylum use began
- August 2023
- Asylum use ended
- January 2025
- Peak residents
- 500
- Days in asylum use
- 537
- Benchmark rate
- £170/person/night
No site-specific total has been published, so this figure approximates it using the contracted bed capacity (peak resident count as a proxy) at the £170/person/night NAO all-in benchmark across the documented asylum-use window. Home Office contracts pay for the full capacity whether beds are occupied or empty, so this is a rough "taxpayer exposure" measure — not a settled invoice.
Capacity
500
peak residents
Per night
£170
per resident
Annual
£31m
estimated
Key Facts
Location and Context
Portland Port is a working deep-water port on the Isle of Portland, on the Dorset coast. The Bibby Stockholm, a 93-metre, 222-cabin barge originally built in 1976 and used previously for offshore workforce accommodation, was towed in and moored alongside from July 2023 ahead of its use as asylum accommodation.
Its selection as the UK government's first asylum accommodation vessel was controversial from the outset, with Dorset Council, local MPs and community groups raising objections on fire safety, infrastructure, and humanitarian grounds. The House of Commons Library briefing on asylum accommodation groups the Bibby alongside ex-military bases and other “large-scale sites” as a separate category from hotels[1].
Operational Timeline
7 August 2023: The first group of around 15 asylum seekers boarded the Bibby Stockholm. Capacity was originally pitched at around 500 unaccompanied adult men.
11 August 2023: Within days of the first arrivals, legionella bacteria were detected in the barge's water system. The Home Office evacuated everyone onboard and suspended operations while the system was flushed and retested[2].
October 2023: Residents began returning to the barge in phased groups once the Home Office declared the water safe.
12 December 2023: Leonard Farruku, a 27-year-old asylum seeker from Albania, was found dead onboard. A coroner subsequently returned a conclusion of suicide and criticised conditions and mental-health provision on the barge[3].
Throughout 2024: Conditions onboard were the subject of repeated parliamentary scrutiny, medical reports, and NAO examination as part of its wider investigation into asylum accommodation costs[5].
January 2025: Residents were moved off the barge as the Home Office ended the contract. STV reported the end of operations at roughly the eighteen-month mark[4].
Timeline
7 Aug 2023
First arrivals board the barge
Around 15 men boarded the Bibby Stockholm. Capacity pitched at 500 unaccompanied adult men.
11 Aug 2023
Legionella detected
Bacteria found in the water system within days of arrival. Operations suspended.
Oct 2023
Phased return of residents
Residents returned in phased groups once water was declared safe.
12 Dec 2023
Onboard death
Leonard Farruku, 27, found dead on board. Coroner returned a conclusion of suicide.
2024
Continuing scrutiny
NAO included the barge within the wider large-sites investigation.
Jan 2025
Decommissioned
Residents moved off and the contract ended at roughly the 18-month mark.
Cost and the NAO Finding
Individual line-item costs for the Bibby Stockholm have not been separately published. What is public is the National Audit Office's March 2024 investigation, which grouped the Bibby together with RAF Wethersfield, RAF Scampton and a former Huddersfield student site as “four large sites” on which the Home Office had already spent roughly £230 million by March 2024[5]. The NAO concluded that the large-sites programme is expected to cost more than hotels and to deliver fewer places than planned. That contradicted the stated ministerial rationale for moving people out of hotels.
Because Home Office contracts for this kind of provision are capacity-based rather than occupancy-based (the taxpayer pays for the bed stock whether or not it is full), the cost base runs even when beds are vacant. That was the operational reality during the legionella shutdown and during the winding-down months. Per-person per-night benchmarks for this kind of accommodation sit around the £170 all-in mark reported by the Migration Observatory[6].
Cost in context
Bibby Stockholm benchmark
£170
per night
UK asylum hotel avg
£170
NAO
Hostel bed
£30
commercial
Large-sites programme avg (NAO)
£200
estimate
Legacy
The Bibby Stockholm has become a reference point in the national debate on asylum accommodation: the first, and so far only, accommodation vessel used for this purpose in the UK, its operational record combined a legionella outbreak, a death in custody of the Home Office's accommodation estate, and a critical NAO cost finding. The barge itself left Portland Port in early 2025 and returned to its owners; no successor vessel has been announced.
Sources
- Asylum accommodation: hotels, vessels and large-scale sites — House of Commons Library, 2025
Parliamentary research briefing surveying the UK asylum accommodation estate including hotels, accommodation vessels such as the Bibby Stockholm, and large-scale sites on surplus government or ex-military land.
- Bibby Stockholm: Asylum seekers removed after legionella found on barge — BBC News, Aug 2023
BBC report on the August 2023 evacuation of asylum seekers from the Bibby Stockholm barge at Portland Port after legionella bacteria were detected in the water supply, just days after the first arrivals.
- Man found dead on Bibby Stockholm barge — The Guardian, Dec 2023
Guardian coverage of the death of Leonard Farruku, a 27-year-old Albanian asylum seeker, on the Bibby Stockholm barge in December 2023. A coroner later returned a conclusion of suicide and criticised onboard conditions.
- Hundreds of asylum seekers moved off Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge — STV News, 2024
Reports the end of the Bibby Stockholm barge as asylum accommodation after roughly 18 months, including incidents of legionella contamination in the water supply and a death by suicide on board.
- Alternative asylum accommodation will cost more than hotels — National Audit Office, Mar 2024
NAO finding that the Home Office expects to spend £1.2 billion on its large-sites programme and had already spent at least £230 million by March 2024 developing four large sites (Bibby Stockholm, RAF Scampton, RAF Wethersfield and former student accommodation in Huddersfield); concludes large-scale sites will cost more than hotels and deliver fewer places than planned.
- Asylum accommodation in the UK — Migration Observatory, University of Oxford, Aug 2025
£170 per person per day in hotels (2024/25 average); used for per-hotel estimates and food/utilities breakdowns.