UK Landlords Offered More Than Double Council Rents To House Channel Migrants
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,
British landlords are being offered thousands more each month to house small-boat arrivals than local councils pay to shelter vulnerable British families, a Daily Mail investigation has revealed.
The deals come from Clearsprings Ready Homes, one of three Home Office contractors operating under multi-billion-pound taxpayer-funded contracts.
In one south London case, a landlord was offered £4,500 a month for a three-bedroom flat he currently rents to Southwark Council for £1,790. That is an extra £32,520 a year, plus bills, council tax and maintenance covered for three years.
The anonymous landlord told the Mail: "I already rent to Southwark Council, and they are able to offer significantly more than the local authority, which to me is bizarre. The council has a ceiling on what they are allowed to pay landlords like myself."
He continued, "For a three-bed flat I get £1,790 from the local authority to house families, while I would rent it to Clearsprings for £4,500 per month. I didn't go with them because it would have meant terminating my contract with Southwark Council and putting families at serious risk of homelessness. I am not prepared to do that. But many landlords just see it as an opportunity to earn more, and just go with them."
Clearsprings is understood to be targeting properties already used for council tenants, students and vulnerable people, including those fleeing domestic abuse.
The firm, run by Graham King (estimated fortune £726 million), houses around 30,000 asylum seekers and reported £62.6 million profit on £1.4 billion turnover in the year to January 2025.
It is one of three contractors (alongside Serco and Mears) with contracts originally awarded under the Conservatives and running until 2029.
The National Audit Office has previously put expected Home Office spending on the main asylum contracts at £1.67 billion for 2024-25.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called it "a day of shame for Labour" and said: "It is insane that illegal immigrants who have broken our laws, and some of whom go on to commit appalling crimes against women and girls, are being prioritised above law-abiding citizens who work hard and pay their taxes."
"Over 85,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the Channel under this Labour Government yet only seven per cent of arrivals are removed. This has led to a huge increase in HMOs and flats being used to house them - with over 93,000 people now in asylum accommodation," Philp further urged.
A Home Office spokesman claimed that the department pays a capped contractual rate and that "any amount above that is covered by the contractor and not taxpayers."
Officials pointed to hotel closures and claimed savings of more than £1 billion on asylum support since the election, along with 80,000 removals.
Meanwhile, Border Security Commander Duncan Capps has warned that nearly 3,800 migrants are currently waiting in camps between Calais and Dunkirk - almost double the usual number of around 2,000.
Capps told MPs: "I think the French estimate at the moment is that there is almost 3,800 people between those two camps. Previously it was broadly about 2,000 between them." He added that larger boats and higher occupancy mean "it is only a matter of time till we have a mass casualty event in the Channel."
Crossings so far this year are down on last year's total, but the backlog in northern France shows demand remains high. Migrants typically make multiple attempts; French intercepts do not lead to detention, so the same people can try again.
Since Labour took office in July 2024, more than 83,000 people have crossed in small boats - more than the roughly 83,000 personnel in the British Army.
Total small-boat arrivals since records began in 2018 now exceed the combined strength of the Army, Navy and RAF. Former Royal Navy officer Chris Parry has described the intake under Labour as the equivalent of "six-and-a-half divisions of fighting-age men."
Arrivals have at times averaged one every minute during peak periods. The system processing them has been described by a Home Office decision-maker who assessed thousands of claims as fundamentally broken.
Speaking to The Times, the official known as J said: "At best 1 per cent of asylum seekers are genuine. There's almost no aspect of the asylum system that isn't either a massive fraud or just really dysfunctional. Nothing works as it should."
Common patterns include package claims from the same nationalities using near-identical stories, staged photographs, and networks charging thousands of pounds to coach applicants to claim they are gay or face political persecution. BBC undercover work has documented advisers offering fabricated evidence for sexuality-based claims.
The housing pressure is not new. Earlier this year the government signalled that every area of the country should expect to take a share of arrivals as hotels are closed and people are dispersed into residential property.
Projections have suggested migrants could account for 40 per cent of new UK homes by 2030 under current trajectories.
Local residents have repeatedly protested when HMOs or former military sites are converted for this purpose.
The current Clearsprings offers simply accelerate the same displacement dynamic with higher guaranteed rents funded through the contractor model.
The pattern is consistent: record crossings, low removal rates, an asylum system described by its own officials as riddled with fraud, and now private contractors using the resulting demand to outbid councils for ordinary housing.
British families on the housing list, students, and people fleeing domestic abuse are being asked to compete against a taxpayer-backed premium for people who arrived illegally.
The contracts were set under previous governments; the volume and the political choice to keep the system running at this scale sit with the current one.
Without a sustained reduction in arrivals and a higher removal rate, the housing pressure and the cost will surely spiral out of control.
Tyler Durden Thu, 10/22/2026 - 03:30
Continue reading...
[ H/T ZeroHedge ]
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,
British landlords are being offered thousands more each month to house small-boat arrivals than local councils pay to shelter vulnerable British families, a Daily Mail investigation has revealed.
The deals come from Clearsprings Ready Homes, one of three Home Office contractors operating under multi-billion-pound taxpayer-funded contracts.
In one south London case, a landlord was offered £4,500 a month for a three-bedroom flat he currently rents to Southwark Council for £1,790. That is an extra £32,520 a year, plus bills, council tax and maintenance covered for three years.
The anonymous landlord told the Mail: "I already rent to Southwark Council, and they are able to offer significantly more than the local authority, which to me is bizarre. The council has a ceiling on what they are allowed to pay landlords like myself."
He continued, "For a three-bed flat I get £1,790 from the local authority to house families, while I would rent it to Clearsprings for £4,500 per month. I didn't go with them because it would have meant terminating my contract with Southwark Council and putting families at serious risk of homelessness. I am not prepared to do that. But many landlords just see it as an opportunity to earn more, and just go with them."
Clearsprings is understood to be targeting properties already used for council tenants, students and vulnerable people, including those fleeing domestic abuse.
The firm, run by Graham King (estimated fortune £726 million), houses around 30,000 asylum seekers and reported £62.6 million profit on £1.4 billion turnover in the year to January 2025.
It is one of three contractors (alongside Serco and Mears) with contracts originally awarded under the Conservatives and running until 2029.
The National Audit Office has previously put expected Home Office spending on the main asylum contracts at £1.67 billion for 2024-25.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called it "a day of shame for Labour" and said: "It is insane that illegal immigrants who have broken our laws, and some of whom go on to commit appalling crimes against women and girls, are being prioritised above law-abiding citizens who work hard and pay their taxes."
"Over 85,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the Channel under this Labour Government yet only seven per cent of arrivals are removed. This has led to a huge increase in HMOs and flats being used to house them - with over 93,000 people now in asylum accommodation," Philp further urged.
A Home Office spokesman claimed that the department pays a capped contractual rate and that "any amount above that is covered by the contractor and not taxpayers."
Officials pointed to hotel closures and claimed savings of more than £1 billion on asylum support since the election, along with 80,000 removals.
Meanwhile, Border Security Commander Duncan Capps has warned that nearly 3,800 migrants are currently waiting in camps between Calais and Dunkirk - almost double the usual number of around 2,000.
Capps told MPs: "I think the French estimate at the moment is that there is almost 3,800 people between those two camps. Previously it was broadly about 2,000 between them." He added that larger boats and higher occupancy mean "it is only a matter of time till we have a mass casualty event in the Channel."
Crossings so far this year are down on last year's total, but the backlog in northern France shows demand remains high. Migrants typically make multiple attempts; French intercepts do not lead to detention, so the same people can try again.
Since Labour took office in July 2024, more than 83,000 people have crossed in small boats - more than the roughly 83,000 personnel in the British Army.
Total small-boat arrivals since records began in 2018 now exceed the combined strength of the Army, Navy and RAF. Former Royal Navy officer Chris Parry has described the intake under Labour as the equivalent of "six-and-a-half divisions of fighting-age men."
Arrivals have at times averaged one every minute during peak periods. The system processing them has been described by a Home Office decision-maker who assessed thousands of claims as fundamentally broken.
Speaking to The Times, the official known as J said: "At best 1 per cent of asylum seekers are genuine. There's almost no aspect of the asylum system that isn't either a massive fraud or just really dysfunctional. Nothing works as it should."
Common patterns include package claims from the same nationalities using near-identical stories, staged photographs, and networks charging thousands of pounds to coach applicants to claim they are gay or face political persecution. BBC undercover work has documented advisers offering fabricated evidence for sexuality-based claims.
The housing pressure is not new. Earlier this year the government signalled that every area of the country should expect to take a share of arrivals as hotels are closed and people are dispersed into residential property.
Projections have suggested migrants could account for 40 per cent of new UK homes by 2030 under current trajectories.
Local residents have repeatedly protested when HMOs or former military sites are converted for this purpose.
The current Clearsprings offers simply accelerate the same displacement dynamic with higher guaranteed rents funded through the contractor model.
The pattern is consistent: record crossings, low removal rates, an asylum system described by its own officials as riddled with fraud, and now private contractors using the resulting demand to outbid councils for ordinary housing.
British families on the housing list, students, and people fleeing domestic abuse are being asked to compete against a taxpayer-backed premium for people who arrived illegally.
The contracts were set under previous governments; the volume and the political choice to keep the system running at this scale sit with the current one.
Without a sustained reduction in arrivals and a higher removal rate, the housing pressure and the cost will surely spiral out of control.
Tyler Durden Thu, 10/22/2026 - 03:30
Continue reading...
[ H/T ZeroHedge ]
