New figures show billions in overseas development assistance (ODA) alone is still being spent to support asylum seekers, including housing them in the UK.
Under international aid rules, members of the Development Assistance Committee can count the costs of assisting refugees on their soil as ODA during the first 12 months they are in the UK. This includes basic subsistence costs, such as food and accommodation.
The amount of ODA budgeted by the Home Office – which is largely but not solely used to cover accommodation costs such as hotels for asylum seekers – is slightly less than the £2.3bn it spent in 2024/25.
A breakdown of the Official Development Aid funding estimates (Photo: Home Office)
In a breakdown published in a report shared with the Home Affairs Select Committee, the estimate for spending on asylum support is £2.14bn, with £49m assigned to Afghanistan resettlement and £25m to UK resettlement schemes.
How much foreign aid was spent in the UK last year?
In 2024, the UK spent a total of £2.8bn of ODA on support to refugees or asylum seekers in the UK, the equivalent to 20 per cent of aid spending, with the Home Office spending most of this aid.
Other aid, such as scholarships and administration, is also spent in the UK. In 2023, this totalled £833m, which means around 33 per cent of UK aid was spent at home (if added to the in-country spending on refugees).
The Home Office attempts to source houses or flats for most of its accommodation but uses hotels as a contingency measure.
This figure is triple the amount the Home Office first claimed housing asylum seekers would cost the taxpayer.
What has the Government said?
In its manifesto, Labour pledged to “end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds”. It has not given a specific timeline of when it will achieve this.
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A Home Office spokesperson said: “We inherited an asylum system under exceptional pressure, and are urgently taking action to restore order and reduce costs. This will ultimately reduce the amount of Official Development Assistance spent to support asylum seekers and refugees in the UK.
“The Rwanda Scheme also wasted £700m to remove just four volunteers – instead, we have surged removals to nearly 30,000 since the election, are giving law enforcement new counter-terror style powers, and increasing intelligence sharing through our Border Security Command to tackle the heart of the issue, vile people-smuggling gangs.”
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