The Home Office has scrapped plans to house asylum seekers at a former Ministry of Defence site in Lincolnshire after costs ballooned.
The department initially estimated that set-up and refurbishment costs for RAF Scampton would be £5m, but £60m has already now been spent on the site.
A new review of the plans found that opening the site from this autumn as planned would cost a further £122m by the end of its use in 2027, taking the total cost to nearly £200m.
The Home Office said this means the site “no longer represents value for money”, and minister Dame Angela Eagle called it “an unacceptable cost”.
It said work to close the site will begin immediately, with the site's sale happening in line with the process for disposing of Crown land.
Eagle, who is the minister for border security and asylum, said: “Faster asylum processing, increased returns and tighter enforcement of immigration rules will reduce demand for accommodation like Scampton and save millions for the taxpayer as we drive forward work to clear the asylum backlog and strengthen our border security.”
She said the department has also “listened to community feedback and concerns about using this site for asylum accommodation”.
In a Public Accounts Committee hearing earlier this year, Home Office permanent secretary Sir Matthew Rycroft admitted the department got its assessment of the setup cost “woefully” wrong and said there was “very significant optimism bias”.
The decision to pull the plug on the RAF base plan comes after the home secretary in July brought an end to the Rwanda scheme and announced that the Bibby Stockholm barge would close in January.
Eagle's announcement came ahead of a small boats summit today at the National Crime Agency's headquarters where the prime minister, home secretary, foreign secretary, justice secretary and attorney general will meet with the NCA director and officials from Border Force, the Crown Prosecution Service and UK intelligence to discuss Labour's plans to stop smuggling gangs. It will not feature the new border security commander, as the role is still being recruited for.
The meeting will set out what progress is being made in intensifying the enforcement activity aimed at disrupting, intercepting and destroying the criminal network moving people, boats and engines into Europe and across the continent to the French coastline.
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said: "The last two months has seen encouraging progress, with significant seizures of boats and equipment in Europe. But there is work to do, and the Border Security Command will bring all the relevant bodies together to investigate, arrest and prosecute these networks, as well as deepen our ties with key international partners. "