RAF Wethersfield: Asylum Accommodation Profile
RAF Wethersfield, a former Royal Air Force base near Braintree in Essex, has been used as large-scale asylum accommodation since July 2023. It is the operational anchor of the Home Office's large-sites programme and the single biggest cost line in that programme. The National Audit Office has projected a whole-life cost of around £338 million to the taxpayer through to 2027 if it remains open.
Capacity
800
peak beds
Per night
£170
per resident
Annual
£338m
NAO whole-life projection
Projected total taxpayer cost
£338,000,000
Source: NAO Investigation into Asylum Accommodation (March 2024)ProjectionProjected whole-life cost through 2026-27. Includes £49m initial setup and £105m acquisition/lease.
Projected total cost: £338,000,000 (NAO Investigation into Asylum Accommodation (March 2024))
- Asylum use began
- July 2023
- Current status
- Still in asylum use
- Peak residents
- 800
- Days in asylum use
- 1,033
Figure quoted directly from a public document; we have not re-estimated it. Home Office contracts are capacity-based, so the total reflects the taxpayer's contractual exposure across the bed-stock (security, MoD lease, utilities, contractor mobilisation) rather than actual nightly occupancy.
Key Facts
Background
RAF Wethersfield was a front-line RAF station, home to US Air Force units during the Cold War, and later used by the Ministry of Defence Police. It sits on a large rural site between Braintree and Saffron Walden in north Essex.
In July 2023 it opened as one of the Home Office's first three large-scale non-hotel asylum accommodation sites, alongside the Bibby Stockholm barge and the continued use of Napier Barracks. The House of Commons Library briefing on asylum accommodation documents Wethersfield as one of the main operational large sites, with a 9-month maximum stay for residents[2].
The £338 Million NAO Projection
The National Audit Office's March 2024 investigation into alternative asylum accommodation produced the most authoritative public cost figure for Wethersfield. Its projection was that, on current policy assumptions, the Home Office would spend approximately £338 million on the site over its full operational life through to 2027. That figure captures initial setup works (~£49m), acquisition and lease costs (~£105m), and ongoing per-person-per-night contractor payments[1].
The NAO also produced a combined figure of roughly £230 million already spent on four large sites (Wethersfield, Scampton, Napier, and a former Huddersfield student site) by March 2024. Because Wethersfield is operationally far larger than the others, the bulk of that £230 million is attributable to Wethersfield rather than evenly split across all four[1].
Critically, the NAO's headline conclusion, that the large-sites programme is expected to cost more than hotels and deliver fewer places than originally planned, rests heavily on Wethersfield. Fixed standby costs (site security, Ministry of Defence licence fees, utilities, contractor mobilisation) continue to be paid whether or not the site is running at full capacity, which means the effective per-person cost of asylum accommodation at Wethersfield is frequently higher than simply buying a bed-night at a commercial hotel at the Migration Observatory's ~£170 benchmark rate[3].
Cost in context
Wethersfield
£200,000
effective £/person/yr (NAO)
UK asylum hotel avg
£170
per person per night
Hostel bed
£30
commercial
IRC bed-day
£350
benchmark
Effective per-person cost reflects the NAO finding that fixed standby spend (security, MoD lease, mobilisation) keeps running regardless of occupancy, pushing the per-person figure above the hotel benchmark.
Cost Composition
The £338 million NAO projection covers the following broad categories, as set out in the investigation:
RAF Wethersfield: NAO-disclosed cost elements
NAO figures are projections, not settled accounts. Operational running-cost elements depend on occupancy levels and contract renewals through to 2027[1].
Timeline
Timeline
Cold War to 1990s
RAF Wethersfield active as RAF / USAF station
Pre-2023
Site held by Ministry of Defence Police
Used as MoDP training base prior to repurposing.
Mar 2023
Home Office announces large-sites programme
Wethersfield, Bibby Stockholm and Scampton named.
Jul 2023
Asylum operations begin at Wethersfield
Unaccompanied adult men, 9-month maximum stay.
Mar 2024
NAO publishes whole-life projection
~£338m projected through to 2027 if the site stays open. Programme cost more per person than hotels.
2024 to 2026
Continuing operational use
Largest of the operational large sites; remains the single biggest cost line in the programme.
Sources
- 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: 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.
- 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.