Asylum centre costs more than world's most exclusive hotels

Source: Telegraph UK, 18/01/2016

The accommodation for failed asylum seekers cost £6.4m to run last
year but only housed 14 families for an average of three nights each
An accommodation centre for failed asylum seekers is more costing than
the world`s most exclusive hotels, taking just 14 families last year
at a cost of more than £450,000 each.


Cedars, a secure centre run by the Home Office, was occupied for
approximately 40 nights in the first nine months of 2014/15 – but
landed the taxpayer with a bill for millions of pounds.


Total running costs for 2014/15 were estimated at £6,398,869 – or more
than £457,000 for each family which passed through its doors.


If each family stayed at the centre for the full year, the cost would
equate to £1,252 a night, or £38,088 per family per month.


However, the true cost is far higher – as much as £152,354 a night -
because most families spend only 72 hours at Cedars - the name of
which is an acronym for "Compassion, Empathy, Dignity,
Approachability, Respect and Support".


The Home Office was unable to provide a breakdown of how long each
family resided at the six-acre site, which can house up to nine
families at a time in self-contained apartments, so it is impossible
to calculate whether it is providing value for money.


Cedars is a secure centre run by the Home Office
In comparison, the hotel suite normally cited as the world`s most
expensive is the Royal Penthouse Suite at the President Wilson Hotel
in Geneva.


Costing a cool £53,000 per night, it boasts a 1,700 square-metre
terrace with views of Lake Geneva, bulletproof glass, 12 bedrooms with
marble en suite bathrooms, a Steinway grand piano and an armoured
safe.


At its most expensive, Cedars is nearly three times as dear as this
luxurious Swiss pad, which has included pop stars Michael Jackson and
Rihanna among its residents, along with US presidents and Hollywood
stars such as Michael Douglas.


Another playground of the rich and famous, the Ty Warner Penthouse at
the Four Seasons hotel in New York, will set you back £37,000 a night.



London`s Savoy hotel charges from £1,150 for a suite with a view of
the River Thames, making it cheaper than the minimum nightly cost of
Cedars House.


The Cedars, a former hotel at Pease Pottage near Gatwick airport, West
Sussex, was opened in 2011 under the former Coalition government and
since then has cost the taxpayer £26 million to run.
Occupants are kept under lock and key but security measures have been
disguised – for example security arches are decorated with murals.



The building, a former hotel, has nine apartments designed to create a
"family-friendly environment", according to a report by the
Independent Monitoring Board.


"Each apartment has a kitchen and lounge area, family bathroom and
between one and three bedrooms to accommodate up to six people," it
said.


Facilities include a "multi-sensory room", a gym, basketball court,
family and visitor lounge areas, a well-stocked library with a range
of books in different languages, access to computers and the internet,
landscaped gardens including a sensory garden, and children`s play
areas.


The site has "24 hour healthcare, including daily access to a GP" and
a chaplaincy, mosque and prayer room.


"Nobody in their right mind could have thought this was an appropriate
amount to spend on providing shelter to such a small number of
people."


Dia Chakravarty, TaxPayers' Alliance

There is also a "café and dining area, where families can eat with
other residents three times a day, or prepare and cook in their
apartments".


The Home Office oversees services provided by G4S, the private
security firm.


Mostly single women and their children are held at Cedars before being
removed from Britain. Last year 60 per cent were removed from the
country after their stay there and the rest were released temporarily.



In 2013, families of 18 different nationalities stayed there with the
largest groups being Albanian, Pakistani and Nigerian.


David Bolt, the chief inspector of borders and immigration,
highlighted the cost of Cedars House in an official report and noted
that it was "under-used".


"In the first nine months of 2014/15, only 14 families had been
accommodated at Cedars," the chief inspector said.


"Managers considered Cedars played an important role in helping
families and children deal with the stress involved in being removed
from the UK to what, for some children, was an unfamiliar environment
and culture.


"However, they recognised that it was under-used."
The unit normally hold families for 72 hours – or a week, if approved
by ministers – and has welfare services provided by Barnardo`s, the
children`s charity.


Last week a report into the detention of vulnerable people, by Stephen
Shaw the former prisons ombudsman, said Cedars was "frequently empty"
and recommended the Home Office should "draw up plans either to close
Cedars or to change its use as a matter of urgency".


Dia Chakravarty, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It is absolutely
ludicrous that the required service couldn't be provided for a
fraction of the cost.


"It shows an utter contempt for hard-pressed taxpayers' money and a
complete lack of responsibility when it comes to budgeting.


"Nobody in their right mind could have thought this was an appropriate
amount to spend on providing shelter to such a small number of
people."


A Home Office spokeswoman said: "The Government met its commitment to
end the routine detention of children for immigration purposes by
fundamentally changing the system to ensure that the welfare of the
child is at the heart of every decision we make.


"The low level of use of Cedars is a testament to the success of the
returns process and that more families are accepting voluntary
assistance to leave the UK when they no longer have a lawful basis to
stay here.


"Cedars has only ever been intended to be used as a last resort after
all voluntary return options have failed and following the advice of a
panel of independent child safeguarding experts.


"The ongoing cost of pre-departure accommodation is under review."