Taxpayers now pay an average of 199 pounds a night to house asylum seekers in hotels, 37 percent more than the 144.98 pounds recorded last October, or 1,393 pounds a week for each person.

By the end of June the Home Office was using 160 hotels for 16,021 people, down from 200 hotels and 36,273 people the previous September and from a 2023 peak of 56,018. Home Office minister Anna Turley told the Home Affairs Committee that phased closures left the department paying for empty rooms and thereby raised the average cost per occupant.

Officials still intend to convert former military land, including Bicester Garrison, to house 1,256 men beside Piddington, a village of 350 residents that voted 285 to 26 to secede from the United Kingdom. The government is also examining shared houses for three or more occupants.