Report claims Stay Belvedere Hotels, responsible for running multiple hotels housing asylum seekers, was exploiting system for profit
Ministers have been accused of turning a “blind eye to slavery” by ordering Labour MPs to remove legal protections to stop money being spent by state-owned Great British Energy on solar panels manufactured by forced labour in China, Jessica Elgot reports.
Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, has been giving interviews this morning. Asked if the Home Office would recover money from Stay Belvedere Hotels over the failed contract for housing asylum seekers in hotels (see 9.25am), he replied:
The whole purpose of reviewing asylum contracts is to improve the management of them to guarantee value for money for the taxpayer … the operational details are being worked out.
I’ll leave it to Home Office ministers to come back with the finer points of detail on the decision they’ve made, but work is underway to ensure the asylum services continue to operate as normal, to deal with the management problems.
We did need to review these disastrous contracts on asylum accommodation we inherited. We’re doing so to improve management and guarantee value for money for the taxpayer.
