Home Office asylum accommodation

£5.77M a day on asylum hotels

That is £2.1B across 2024/25, inside the £4bn the Home Office spent on asylum support altogether. 40,168 people were awaiting an initial decision at 30 Jun 2026.

House of Commons Library, CDP-2025-0184

What we found

INVESTIGATION £8.0B The true cost of asylum: £234 per income taxpayer, per year Read more → FINDING +14.6pp Asylum grant rates rise sharply on appeal, across 101 nationalities Read more → FINDING 17.8x Pakistani UK asylum decisions: 989 in 2022, 17,592 in 2025 Read more →

All 30 findings →

£234 total cost per income taxpayer per year Accommodation and support, enforcement, border security, welfare after a decision, NHS, education, tribunals, legal aid. Range £212 to £257. Full breakdown. £8.0B total / 34.1M taxpayers.

£170 per person per night in a hotel 2024/25 average, the year the £5.77M daily figure covers. 16,021 people were in asylum hotels at 30 Jun 2026, down from 30,657 at the end of 2025.

£15.3B forecast over 10 years NAO forecast. The 10-year asylum accommodation contract rose from £4.5B to £15.3B.

Total cost: Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2025-26 for the audited departmental lines, published figures and stated estimates for the rest. Daily cost: House of Commons Library debate pack CDP-2025-0184, which states it verbatim (2024/25 average). Taxpayers: HMRC projected 2024-25. Per-night hotel rate: Migration Observatory, 2024/25, the same year as the daily cost. 10-year: NAO Investigation into Asylum Accommodation, Nov 2024.

The system in numbers

Updated 30 Jun 2026 · Home Office

93,293 On asylum support Receiving Home Office accommodation, subsistence, or both. As at 30 Jun 2026.

40,168 Awaiting an initial decision As at 30 Jun 2026. Cases lodged but not yet decided at first instance.

15,897 Small boat arrivals, 2026 so far 1 January to 20 August 2026, against 27,997 at the same point in 2025, a fall of 43%. Home Office weekly series, updated Fridays. The year ending June 2026 total was 33,374, 88% of detected irregular entry.

31.5% Initial grant rate At first decision only, 2025 Q3 to 2026 Q2. After appeals the final grant rate is on average 14.6pp higher, across the 101 of 105 nationalities whose rate rises (Asy_D04).

12,888 Refugee family reunion grants Year ending June 2026, down 38% on Year ending June 2025 (20,643).

15 Councils taking zero 33 councils have rates above 30 per 10,000. 15 take none.

Hamilton-Perry model, Census-verified

The ONS does not project ethnic composition by local authority. This model does.

The ONS will not project ethnic composition at local authority level. So we built a model that does. 318 local authorities across England and Wales. Census 2011 and 2021 observed data. Hamilton-Perry CCR methodology. 1,000 Monte Carlo simulations. Every ratio traced to Census observations.

White British share (population-weighted, 318 local authorities in model)

2011 Census 80.2%

2021 Census 74.4%

2051 projected 55.1%

Census figures observed. 2051 projected by the Hamilton-Perry v8.0 model, which is tested one decade out of sample (MAE 1.56pp) and not beyond, so read 2051 as materially more uncertain than that error bar. The series stops at 2051 because 49 areas have no 2061 projection and they are not a random 49, so a 2061 bar would not be comparable with the ones above it. Full methodology

86 areas White British under 50% by 2051

99 areas White British under 50% by 2061

5 areas projected Muslim majority by 2051

110 areas projected foreign-born majority by 2051

Fastest transformation: White British % (2021 Census)

Sandwell 52% Oxford 53% Cambridge 53% Wolverhampton 55% Reading 53% Kingston upon Thames 54% Coventry 55% Blackburn with Darwen 57% Sutton 57% Nottingham 57%

See the findings National demographic outlook Methodology

Explore the data

What does your area look like in 2051?

361 local authority profiles. Asylum numbers, demographic projections to 2061, hotel sites, crime, schools, your MP, your council. All sourced. All free.

Browse all 361 areas →

Ten councils hold the highest asylum support rates per head

Ranked by people on asylum support per 10,000 residents, as at 30 Jun 2026. Areas with fewer than 200 supported are excluded. Select any area for the full profile.

Area Per 10k Total

1 Glasgow City 60.2 3,938 2 Hyndburn 49.0 426 3 Braintree 47.5 791 4 Burnley 46.7 471 5 Coventry 46.6 1,700 6 Blackburn with Darwen 46.4 760 7 Halton 45.8 604 8 Rugby 45.1 567 9 Pendle 44.0 441 10 Middlesbrough 43.9 671

See all 361 areas →

Asylum support is spread unevenly across the regions

Regions are ranked by the number of people on asylum support. The rate per 10,000 residents is the comparable measure, and it varies several times over between the highest and lowest regions.

North West 18,962 24.4 per 10,000 London 12,140 13.3 per 10,000 West Midlands 11,756 18.9 per 10,000 Yorkshire and The Humber 8,164 14.4 per 10,000 East Midlands 7,710 15.2 per 10,000 North East 7,049 25.5 per 10,000

The routes into Britain

Small boats. Visa overstayers. Resettlement schemes. The government counts them separately. So do we.

Safe and legal (humanitarian) grants 124,930 Year ending June 2026 38,267 granted out of country. 86,663 are extensions for people already in the UK.

Refugee Family Reunion grants 12,888 Year ending June 2026

Ukraine arrivals 13,600 Year ending June 2026

Afghan Resettlement Programme arrivals 3,352 Year ending June 2026

UK Resettlement Scheme and predecessor schemes 488 Year ending June 2026

Community Sponsorship arrivals 12 2025

Full route analysis →

Sister site · ukdemographics.co.uk

The demographic shift behind every asylum number

We track the fiscal bill here. Over on ukdemographics.co.uk we track who this country is becoming. 320 local authorities, ethnic projections to 2061, schools, housing and health demand. Same government data. Two lenses. Follow both.

White British share (population-weighted, 318 local authorities)

2011 80.2%

2021 74.4%

2051 55.1%

74.4 → 55.0% White British share, 2021 → 2051 Hamilton-Perry v8.0, population-weighted across 318 local authorities. Out-of-sample MAE 1.56pp

86 local authorities below 50% by 2051

110 projected foreign-born majority by 2051

5 projected Muslim majority by 2051

See the full demographic outlook → ukdemographics.co.uk How the model works →

Every number sourced. Every source linked.

Click any figure and trace it back to the government's own publications. Then decide for yourself.

Look up your area Read the findings Check the sources