Bungling Robert Jenrick's overpriced asylum prison clanger blasted in scathing report - 'unacceptable'

Robert Jenrick signed disconnected connected the acquisition of contaminated erstwhile HMP Northeye successful East Sussex to location asylum seekers arsenic portion of a Tory spending spree that wasted astir £100million

Bungling Robert Jenrick's determination to discarded millions of pounds buying a contaminated situation highlighted a "dysfunctional culture" of throwing wealth away, a scathing study says.

The debacle was 1 of a bid of Tory errors that ended up costing taxpayers astir £100million, cross-party MPs found. Mr Jenrick, present Kemi Badenoch's shadiness justness secretary, signed disconnected connected the acquisition of erstwhile HMP Northeye for £15.4million to location asylum seekers aft ignoring advice..

The monolithic sum was much than treble what the sellers had paid for it a twelvemonth earlier, and it needed much than £20million to beryllium spent to bring it up to scratch. A damning dossier, drawn up by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said the lawsuit should service arsenic a informing connected however not to bash purchases.

It recovered that "unacceptable" sums were wasted erstwhile the Home Office tried to person the nationalist it was solving the asylum accommodation crisis. The section "rushed to walk nationalist money", but ended up with small to amusement for it aft the spending spree, MPs found.

It besides pointed to the erstwhile authorities spending £34million connected the Bibby Stockholm superbarge, which housed acold less radical than expected. It besides spent £60million trying to crook RAF Scampton successful Lincolnshire into asylum accomodation, lone for this to beryllium abandoned.

And £2.9million was spent connected a tract successful Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire, lone for the program to beryllium scrapped. The study said nary of this spending spree produced the expected results, stating: "In its unreserved to act, the Home Office has repeatedly prioritised operating astatine velocity and without respect to disposable information..."

The Northeye tract was expected to supply accomodation for 1,400 radical astatine a clip erstwhile the Tories were trying to woody with ballooning asylum costs. The merchantability went done successful September 2023 aft Mr Jenrick - who was past Immigration Minister - signed disconnected connected it.

The disused situation had been sold for £6.3million a twelvemonth earlier. It is present acceptable to beryllium sold by the Home Office.

Tory MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who chairs the committee, said: “Northeye was 1 of a bid of failed Home Office acquisitions for ample asylum accommodation sites, totalling a outgo to the nationalist purse of astir a 100 cardinal pounds of taxpayers’ money. Treasury rules for safeguarding nationalist wealth are determination for a crushed and should lone beryllium overridden successful utmost circumstances.

This lawsuit intelligibly demonstrates wherefore those safeguards should usually beryllium followed. The Home Office says it has learned the lessons from its disastrously managed acquisition of the Northeye site.

These are lessons for which the payer has paid a steep price. It is profoundly frustrating that proposal was offered to the Home Office, from adept spot teams from different parts of Government, connected the Northeye acquisition that the Home Office chose not to use."

The committee called connected the Home Office to supply a elaborate breakdown connected the sums spent connected abandoned asylum programmes. It was ordered to acceptable retired however policies person changed nether the caller government.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “We inherited an asylum strategy successful chaos. The contents of this study subordinate to the erstwhile government’s acquisition of the Northeye tract for asylum accommodation, but we person decided against progressing the tract to guarantee worth for wealth for the taxpayer.

“As portion of our wide effort to chopped the astronomical outgo of asylum accommodation, including ending the usage of asylum hotels, we person surged the fig of returns, removing much than 16,400 radical with nary close to beryllium successful the UK, restarted asylum processing, established the caller Border Security Command, and prioritised the acquisition of much sustainable dispersal accommodation.”