Private contractor Serco wants more landlords to take in asylum seekers as record numbers continue to cross the Channel.

The company is offering to organise a five-year lease with no void periods, regular rent payments without arrears, free repairs and maintenance, full HMO and property management costs as well as covering tenants’ council tax and bills while the asylum seekers’ claims are being processed.

Serco promises to consider all types of property in the Northwest, Midlands and East of England including empty properties, HMOs, residential homes and student accommodation.

It was awarded a 10-year contract – worth a record £1.9 billion – by the Home Office in 2019 and is already housing at least 30,000 asylum seekers in 6,000 homes. Serco’s operating model is based on leasing properties from a wide network of landlords, investors and agents and acting as a tenant.

Record levels

It comes as the latest government figures show that at least 38,000 people have arrived by small boat in 2022. A Home Office spokesman says: “The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under extreme pressure.

“As a result of this incredible strain, there are currently more than 33,000 asylum-seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer more than £5 million a day. This is unacceptable and we are working hard with local authorities to find safe, permanent accommodation.”

Home Secretary Suella Braverman recently set out new plans which would ban migrants who cross the Channel from claiming asylum and said it was her dream to see a government flight deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda.