Report submitted by Tees Valley of Sanctuary to the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, in response to the call for evidence on asylum housing (March 2018) – this report contains lots of quotes and case studies

Home Affairs Committee report on Asylum Accommodation (Jan 2017)

Government response to the report (Nov 2017) and Refugee Council comment on the government’s response

An article in the Guardian on conditions in asylum accommodation (Oct 2017)

National Audit Office report on the COMPASS contracts (2014)

An article from the Indpendent covering an issue that received some coverage at the beginning of 2016 – a sub-contractor in Middlesbrough used red paint on front doors which made the asylum-seekers living there targets for hate crime – the doors have since been repainted! (Jan 2016)

Asylum seekers can apply for accommodation from the Home Office. Applicants can’t choose where this will be.

Some regions accommodate a lot more asylum seekers than others. You can see data about numbers of asylum seekers housed by local authorities via the Home Office’s quarterly statistics release (look for the list of tables and then volume 4 in the ‘Asylum’ section).

This briefing from the House of Commons follows on from a debate that was held in May 2015 and provides more information about dispersal policy.

The COMPASS contracts are between the Home Office and private accommodation providers to provide dispersal accommodation. They were awarded in 2012 for 5 years and then extended until Sep 2019.

The contracts are as follows:

• North East and Yorkshire and Humberside – G4S
• London and the South of England – Clearsprings
• Midlands and East of England – G4S
• North West – Serco
• Scotland and Northern Ireland – Serco
• Wales – Clearsprings