The Lead Untangles: What’s the solution to the asylum accommodation crisis?

The government has wasted billions on asylum accommodation – could modular housing hold the key to a sustainable fix?

This week The Home Office confirmed two army barracks would be used to house about 900 men temporarily. Pic: Dave Connor/Flickr

The Lead Untangles is delivered via email every week by The Lead and focuses on a different complex, divisive issue with each edition. The entirety of The Lead Untangles will always be free for all subscribers.

Two army barracks will be used to temporarily house asylum seekers as part of a shift away from hotels, with the Home Office working to identify more sites to use.

Cameron barracks in Inverness and Crowborough training camp in East Sussex, were used to accommodate Afghan families evacuated during the withdrawal from Kabul in 2021 while they were resettled elsewhere.

A report published Monday found the government has wasted billions on asylum accommodation, mainly due to its reliance on hotels as a quick fix rather than a long-term solution. But army barracks are likely to be more expensive than hotels and may be traumatising for those seeking asylum.

But, there is another solution being floated: modular housing.

This week, housing secretary Steve Reed said the government is looking into modular (or pop-up) buildings, with plans to be announced “within weeks,” but provided no further details.

What is modular housing and how would it work?

Modular houses are prefabricated homes that are built in sections in a factory, using the same materials as other traditional homes, namely wood, steel, concrete and cement. The modules are transported to the building site and assembled on a permanent foundation.

Because they’re built indoors, modular homes are quicker and cheaper to build than traditional houses, but still meet the same building codes and quality standards.

Modular homes are already in use at the RAF Wethersfield base, which is the largest asylum accommodation site in the country. Over summer, an information leaflet issued by the government said there was about 50 per cent occupancy in modular accommodation on the site, with these homes proving popular with asylum seekers.

Plans had previously been floated to install cabins at RAF Scampton, in Lincolnshire, but this was scrapped by Labour due to high costs.

While no plans have been published, Labour said it was looking at ex-military and ex-industrial sites as potential locations.

Modular cells have been used to address the overcrowding crisis in UK prisons, and some local authorities, such as in Cambridge and London, have used modular homes to address the housing and temporary accommodation crisis, with more to come. Modular homes are also used in some new housing developments, like the high-rise Ten Degrees development in Croydon, London, which has 546 homes.

Would modular homes really be better than hotels?

The government has been vague when discussing potential plans for asylum seekers, particularly modular homes, so it’s unclear how it would work in practice, if at all.

In Ireland, modular homes are being used to house refugees, mainly those fleeing the war in Ukraine. In April this year, it had spent €270 million (£240m) on modular housing for nearly 2,500 Ukrainian refugees.

Aontú Teachta Dála, Peadar Tóibín, said the homes were “yet another example of government waste.”

However, a spokesperson for the Department of Integration said the high cost came down to complications around sites, access and works like water and utility connections, and were due to the emergency nature of the programme.

“However,” it said, “the homes we now have are a state asset with a lifespan of 60 years. They are providing shelter for nearly 2,500 people fleeing war and can be used for other housing needs in the future.”

What are people saying?

CEO of the Refugee Council, Enver Solomon, said: “The plans released overnight by the Home Office to house 10,000 people seeking asylum on military sites are fanciful, too expensive and too logistically difficult.

“The government could end the use of hotels next year, without resorting to camps, by putting in place a one-off scheme that would give permission to stay for a limited period – subject to rigorous security checks – to people from countries almost certain to be recognised as refugees.

“This would enable people who will ultimately remain in the UK to be able to get on with their lives, finding jobs and contributing to their communities.”

Home secretary Steve Reed said: “You can use modular forms of building. That means it can go up much faster than would normally be the case, and there are planning processes that we can use in these circumstances to make sure that the planning system itself isn’t delayed.”

What’s next?

The home secretary said plans will be announced in a matter of weeks but, for now we’ll have to “wait and see.”

If the government does go ahead with modular housing, it will need to identify sites to place the homes and procure contracts with building companies such as Portakabin, which has said it is open to doing a deal with the Home Office to provide emergency prefabs for asylum seekers.■

About The Lead Untangles: In an era where misinformation is actively and deliberately used by elected politicians and where advocates and opposers of beliefs state their point of view as fact, sometimes the most useful tool reporters have is to help readers make sense of the world. If there is something you’d like us to untangle, email ella@thelead.uk

About the author: Ella is a freelance journalist and social media editor at The Lead specialising in worker’s rights, housing, health, harm reduction and lifestyle.

---

Also from The Lead this week

Read an exclusive extract from the upcoming book by journalist and mental health worker Katherine Denkinson. INCEL: The Weaponisation of Misogyny examines how inceldom emerged from loneliness, lost community, and political failure – we can’t wait to get our hands on a copy when it’s released on 14 November.

And if you like what you read, paid subscribers to The Lead can listen to Zoë Grünewald’s podcast episode with Katherine – coming out on Saturday. Make sure you’re subscribed and keep an eye on your inbox for that.

---

From bizarre proclamations to all the detail of how their attempts to run councils are going – we’re keeping a close eye on what Reform are up to.

---

All the latest from our agenda-setting award-winning team in the North of England, The Lead North, including the far-right on the streets in Southport, and Reform UK not being particularly transparent on a possible conflict of interest in Lancashire.

---

And our latest edition of The Lead Digest from the best takes on Lily Allen to the microcosm of social biases playing out in The Celebrity Traitors – here’s everything our team has been reading, watching and listening to this week.

---

As we say goodbye to Black History Month, here's a reminder of the stories we have published: from the scary realities of rural racism, to the STI crisis disproportionately impacting Black women, to our team’s analysis of how child poverty is deeply stratified along racial lines. Of course, stories by and for the Black community matter all year round, we have plenty more investigations in the pipeline.

If there’s a story that impacts your community that you think we should be covering, get in touch: natalie@thelead.uk.

Thank you for reading today’s edition – we couldn't do any of this without you. Become a paid subscriber to The Lead today to help support our work covering underreported stories and the issues that matter to you – always with a focus on people, policy and place.

Ella, Zoë, Luke, Natalie, Padraig, Ed and The Lead team.