The Home Office is ending a £2bn contract with one of the government’s biggest providers of asylum accommodation over concerns about the company’s performance.
Stay Belvedere Hotels provides around 25% of asylum accommodation across the UK – including 51 hotels, as of this week, and the soon-to-close Napier Barracks in Kent.
The Home Office said that SBH Limited was being removed from government asylum accommodation operations following “concerns about its performance and behaviour as a government supplier”.
The department said the decision followed an “examination of its contract and contractual arrangements with the Home Office”, which began under the last government in 2019. It said the earliest point that the contract could be exited without a break cost would be September next year.
Border-security and asylum minister Dame Angela Eagle said that since taking office the new government had been looking closely at provision of asylum accommodation, in particular the quality of services offered and value for money for taxpayers.
“Since July, we have improved contract management and added more oversight of our suppliers of asylum accommodation,” she said.
“We have made the decision to remove Stay Belvedere Hotels from the Home Office supply chain and will not hesitate to take further action to ensure Home Office contracts deliver for the UK.”
The Home Office said “robust plans” were being put in place to ensure asylum services continued operating as normal during the transition from SBHL and that there would be “as little disruption to asylum seekers and staff as possible”.
It added that the department was working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government "on a sustainable and value for money plan on asylum accommodation”.