Company owned by billionaire 'Asylum King' planning 15,000 beds in new properties to 'replace migrant hotels'

A institution owned by billionaire 'Asylum King' Graham King is readying 15,000 beds successful caller properties to regenerate migrant hotels.

Asylum accommodation supplier Clearsprings Ready Homes insisted the facilities would beryllium ‘much much affordable’ than placing migrants successful hotels connected afloat board.

Clearsprings and 2 different companies which clasp deals to proviso asylum accommodation besides told MPs they person yet to wage backmost immoderate currency to the payer nether nett stock clauses successful their contracts with the Home Office.

It comes aft watchdogs revealed past week that asylum seeker lodging - including hotels and alleged ‘dispersed accommodation’ specified arsenic self-catering flats - is costing the payer £4million each day.

Managing manager of Clearsprings Ready Homes Steve Lakey told a Commons committee: ‘We person projected - and we’re talking to the Home Office astir it astatine the infinitesimal – immoderate what is called “overflow dispersed accommodation”.

‘It’s a somewhat antithetic variant connected self-catering dispersed accommodation.

‘We’ve got astir 15,000 bedspaces that we person projected that could beryllium utilised to regenerate hotels directly.

‘Much much affordable, overmuch much akin to dispersed accommodation and - astir importantly - self-catering and successful [the] community, truthful little of a gully than hotels.’

Clearsprings proprietor Mr King was catapulted onto the Sunday Times Rich List past twelvemonth aft cashing successful connected the UK's migrant situation with an estimated nett worthy of £750million.

In the past twelvemonth his wealthiness is estimated to person soared supra £1billion and helium is placed 154th successful the 2025 variation of the list, to beryllium published this weekend.

Mr King leads a jet-set manner patronising immoderate of the world's apical hotels and eating astatine Michelin-starred restaurants, often successful the institution of his glamorous Latvian woman Lolita Lace, who astatine 39, is 18 years his junior. 

Questioned connected the company’s profits, managing manager Mr Lakey said Clearsprings’ declaration has a ‘profit share’ clause which requires it to refund the payer for immoderate profits supra 5 per cent.

Its profits are presently moving astatine 6.9 per cent, helium said, and ‘the full since the opening of the declaration is £32million’.

None of the currency has yet been returned to the Treasury arsenic it is awaiting audit, but is ‘all determination acceptable to go’, helium told the location affairs prime committee.

Jason Burt of different provider, Mears, said his steadfast had suggested repaying the Home Office £13.8million from its profits nether the clause – and their calculations are besides presently being audited by the government.

Claudia Sturt of the 3rd company, Serco, said it was ‘not yet successful scope for nett share’.

Last week daze figures from the National Audit Office (NAO) showed the wide asylum accommodation measure of much than £15billion implicit 10 years is triple the Home Office’s archetypal estimate.

Contracts were primitively forecast to outgo £4.5billion implicit a decennary from 2019 but are present expected to tally to £15.3billion implicit aforesaid play aft the Channel situation exploded.

It means that connected mean the payer volition walk £4,191,780 a time connected lodging asylum seekers implicit the beingness of the contracts.

A abstracted breakdown from the NAO showed wide costs successful 2024-25 were £1.67billion.

That amounted to £4,567,123 a time connected average, oregon £3,172 a minute.

Asylum hotels 'may beryllium much profitable' for companies holding the contracts than different types of housing, the government's authoritative auditors said.

At the extremity of December, 42,000 asylum seekers were successful Home Office 'contingency accommodation', including 38,000 successful hotels, they added.

It means that Clearsprings gets the spell up for the new-style accommodation it could trim the full fig of asylum seekers successful hotels by 40 per cent.

Clearsprings, Mears and Serco run 2 oregon 3 UK regions each.

The Home Office presently has 210 asylum hotels successful cognition compared to a highest of much than 400, erstwhile they were costing £9million a day, it is understood.

Labour has closed 23 hotels since the wide predetermination and a further 7 volition unopen by July.

However, arrivals crossed the Channel person surged by a 3rd year-on-year.

In full since Labour came to powerfulness determination person been much than 35,000 arrivals, with 601 migrants making it to British ungraded connected Monday.

Last twelvemonth saw much than 108,000 asylum claims – by tiny vessel migrants and others – which was the highest fig since records began successful 1979.

A Home Office root said: 'We inherited chaos close crossed the system.

'The Conservatives conscionable stopped making decisions, with radical not being returned and disastrous contracts that were not decently scrutinised – wasting millions successful payer money.

'Earlier this twelvemonth we removed 1 operator, Stay Belvedere Hotels, from authorities asylum operations. Unlike the Tories, we volition not hesitate to instrumentality immoderate enactment indispensable to warrant worth for wealth for the taxpayer.'