Home Office shelves plans to house asylum seekers in Southport Pontins

Asylum seekers will not beryllium housed successful a Pontins vacation parkland successful north-west England, according to reports.

The installation extracurricular Southport, Merseyside, was reportedly being looked astatine by nan Home Office arsenic an replacement to hotels successful which to location asylum seekers waiting for their claims to beryllium assessed.

The BBC reported that Sefton assembly understands nan Home Office is nary longer considering nan Pontins tract for its plans. “We person been informed that nan Home Office nary longer wishes to prosecute plans to location asylum seekers astatine nan Pontins tract successful Ainsdale. We are awaiting written confirmation of this decision,” a assembly spokesperson told nan BBC.

The authority is understood to person raised a number of objections, including nan logistics of accessing nan tract and nan effect connected tourism.

Ministers are keen to extremity nan reliance connected hotels to location asylum seekers, which nan authorities says is costing £6.8m a day. The migration minister, Robert Jenrick, is hunting for larger replacement sites that would beryllium cheaper, including erstwhile assemblage accommodation, vacation parks specified arsenic Pontins, and surplus subject sites for illustration nan arguable Napier barracks successful Kent.

But nan Home Office’s first effort to group up specified a centre, astatine RAF Linton-on-Ouse, successful North Yorkshire, stalled aft section opposition, including from Conservative politicians, and nan threat of ineligible challenges. Since past nary different patient plans person emerged.

A Home Office spokesperson told nan BBC: “The number of group arriving successful nan UK who require accommodation has reached grounds levels owed to nan unacceptable emergence successful mini vessel arrivals and our committedness to accommodate those from Afghanistan. We truthful proceed to look astatine each disposable options to root due and cost-effective impermanent accommodation.”

Last week, specifications of a £70m statement to put asylum seekers into accommodation centres was published by nan Home Office.

In December, nan Home Office added nan £70m task to its procurement pipeline, nan system it says provides a general look astatine its “anticipated outsourcing activity complete nan adjacent 24 months”.

Officials purpose to tally a “mini-competition” for nan statement to design, build aliases renovate these centres and to negociate them. The programme is owed to tally from June.