Asylum: Finance
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Immigration and Asylum Bill 2026: Impact Assessment, published on 30 June 2026, whether the opportunity cost of increased demand on local authority services arising from asylum seekers was factored into the estimates contained in the impact assessment.
Answered by Home Office
The Immigration and Asylum Bill 2026: Impact Assessment was produced in line with guidance set out in the HMT Green Book.
The Article 8 policy reforms are estimated to increase the number of refusals from migrants applying on the family and private life visa route. This would therefore lead to an overall reduction in demand on the NHS, education system and local authorities. Fiscal pressures avoided are included in Table 18 in Appendix A1.
Table 17 in Appendix A1 sets out the opportunity costs that have been identified and quantified. Additional costs identified but not quantified are set out in Section C.
For opportunity costs arising from the usage of hotel and asylum accommodation, the cost of this accommodation used in the Impact Assessment reflects the market price for the goods and services that it provides. This represents the economic value of the accommodation being occupied and not used for other commercial purposes.
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