Home Office ‘WASTED’ £15m of taxpayers’ money on asbestos-filled derelict prison ‘ultimately deemed unfit for purpose’ to house migrants

The Home Office wasted £15million of taxpayers’ money on a derelict prison contaminated with asbestos that was deemed unfit to house migrants, according to a damning report from Whitehall’s spending watchdog.

The National Audit Office (NAO) found the government department cut corners and overpaid in its rush to acquire the Northeye site in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex.

The site was intended to accommodate asylum seekers but was “ultimately deemed unfit for its intended purpose due to contamination,” the watchdog revealed in its report published on Friday.

Campaigners branded the purchase a “fiasco,” saying millions in public funds were “thrown away on a contaminated and dangerous site that should never have been under consideration.”

The site was initially purchased by Brockwell Group Bexhill Limited Liability Partnership for £6.3m in August 2022.

Just over a year later, in September 2023, the Home Office completed the purchase for £15.4m – more than double the previous sale price.

The acquisition was overseen by a small ministerial group set up in November 2022, which included then-immigration minister Robert Jenrick and Oliver Dowden, who was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster at the time.

The Home Office had initially planned to lease the site but changed course in December 2022, opting instead for an outright purchase.

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By mid-January 2023, property advisers were instructed to make an offer with completion expected within six weeks.

The rushed purchase came after then-prime minister Rishi Sunak’s December 2022 pledge to Parliament to stop housing asylum seekers in hotels.

Sunak told MPs: “Unless we act now, and decisively, this will only get worse.”

This statement “generated significant pressure within the Home Office to identify and secure sites for asylum accommodation at pace,” according to the NAO report.

The ministerial group “dispensed with the need for a full business case before approving the acquisition,” the watchdog found.

The decision to fast-track the purchase led the Home Office to “cut corners and make a series of poor decisions,” the NAO concluded.

In February 2023, planning checks revealed “high risk” contamination across the site, primarily from asbestos-containing materials in buildings and contaminated ground.

A due diligence report warned repairs could cost “in excess of £20 million” – information that was not included in the Home Office’s internal advice.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said: “Once again, rushed and misjudged decision-making has resulted in the Home Office overpaying for an asylum accommodation site that is not fit for purpose.”

He added: “I am concerned that the Home Office deviated from standard practice, overlooked warnings about the condition of the site and lacked expertise to properly oversee the purchase of Northeye.”

The Home Office responded by noting the report concerned actions of the previous government, stating: “Having inherited an asylum system under exceptional strain, with tens of thousands of cases stuck in a backlog, we remain committed to ending the use of hotels and housing people in more suitable and cost-effective achieving better value for the taxpayer.”

The department added it was “getting the asylum system moving again,” with over 9,000 people removed since July 2024.

The NAO acknowledged some progress, saying: “It is encouraging that the Home Office has taken steps to understand what went wrong, and that it has made changes to improve.”

However, the watchdog stressed the need to “adhere to minimum standards and not forgo due diligence, especially at times of intense pressure.”