New contracts will try to 'reduce unit costs' as well as improve cohesion
The National Asylum Support Service is trying to slash the cost of providing accommodation, raising concerns that its work on community cohesion and support services for asylum seekers will fall by the wayside.

The Home Office's immigration and nationality department, which includes NASS, is rumoured to be over its £2bn annual budget.

The Home Office said its spending was currently in line with its budget, but would not provide a detailed breakdown. It has admitted that the new NASS accommodation contracts, due to go live in March 2005, will seek to drive down the cost of housing.

NASS will not release costs but it is understood to pay housing providers about £260 a week per asylum seeker. It spent £747m on supporting asylum seekers in 2000/1 and £1.05bn in 2001/2.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "The current contracts … reflected the particular circumstances which existed at the time of their construction. The key drivers now are improving community cohesion, reducing unit costs and improving regionalisation."

It is thought that the new contracts will go to regional consortia rather than local authorities or national private contractors, as is now the case (HT 5 March, page 8).

Heather Petch, chief executive of the Housing Associations' Charitable Trust, said: "Quite a lot of the better providers have been creative about using money for 'wraparound' services such as community outreach workers and integration services. They are bound to be the first to lose out in any cuts – yet they are exactly the kind of thing we need more of."

Bill Payne, chief executive of Yorkshire Housing, part of the Safehaven consortium to house asylum seekers, said: "We support NASS's work but there comes a point where you have to ask, how can you get cheaper and better? That will be the major challenge."

The news has come at a bad time for NASS, just days after the resignation of immigration minister Beverley Hughes on 1 April.

Source

Housing Today