Robbie Fowler leaves East Bengal after one season

Highlights

• Asylum seekers could receive £100 per week on top of existing £49.18 support to leave hotels.
• Currently over 32,000 migrants housed in 200 hotels costing £145 per night or £5.5 m daily.
• Separate scheme offers up to £3,000 to asylum seekers willing to return to home countries.

The government is considering paying asylum seekers £100 a week to leave taxpayer-funded hotels and live with family or friends in the UK. Home Office officials have proposed the scheme as part of prime minister Keir Starmer's drive to accelerate the closure of asylum hotels. The weekly payment would come on top of the existing £49.18 support for living costs that migrants in hotels currently receive. The plan, set to be trialled in 2026, could reduce accommodation costs to a seventh of current spending. More than 32,000 migrants are currently housed in 200 hotels at an average cost of £145 per night or £1,015 a week. This compares with £23.25 a night for other dispersal accommodation in communities. The total bill for asylum hotels stands at £5.5 m a day, or £2.1 bn a year. Labour has pledged to stop their use by the end of this term in 2029, though suggestions indicate Starmer has privately set a one-year target.

The government has earmarked two former military barracks in Inverness, Scotland, and Crowborough, East Sussex, to house 900 migrants from the end of November as part of the hotel closure plan.