Two asylum schemes to go

The National Asylum Support Service signed a new contract with the Yorkshire and Humberside consortium this week - the third consortium to sign. But NASS can only guarantee that two more refugee dispersal contracts will go ahead.

And both the south central and south west group have announced this week that they are looking at winding up their consortia. Peter Coysh, lead officer for the south-west consortium, said: "It seems probable that the south-west consortium will be wound up in the near future".

Coysh said: "We really did feel shafted" after a meeting with Barbara Roche, Home Office Minister in which she told them that the number of asylum seekers dispersed nation-wide could be as low as 36,000.

Roche said: "In view of this downturn in demand for bedspaces it seems unlikely we would want to take up accommodation from the south-west consortium".

At the meeting Roche also stated: "Price is the main factor in arranging accommodation for asylum seekers."

Mike Canham, of the National Asylum Support Service confirmed that negotiations would now be put on hold for those consortia which had not yet signed.

"There are a number of regions who are quite a long way off contracting" he said. "We are looking to meet with them one more time - if they are keen to contract at some stage, we will keep an action plan going. It isn't a question of "no, not never". They'll be asked to keep it bubbling rather than bring it to the boil" he said.".

Yorkshire and Humberside consortium concluded their contract with NASS last week for 1640 units of accommodation. The east midlands and west midlands consortia looked set to sign contracts in the next two weeks, bringing the total to five.

NASS is continuing negotiations with the north-west consortia and for a second contract in Scotland. In addition, the cities of Cardiff and Southampton may contract independently with NASS, parting with their original consortia.

All new asylum seekers would be housed in secure reception centres and the dispersal system would be scrapped under a Conservative government, the party has revealed.

Shadow home office minister David Lidington told a fringe meeting at the Conservative's annual conference in Bournemouth last week that once in power the Conservatives would scrap the current system of dispersing asylum seekers nationally via the National Asylum Support Service. Instead they would develop secure centres, with access to legal, educational and relevant services.

He said: "It is a national problem and a national challenge that central government needs to get a grip of rather than pushing it on to local authorities and other agencies. The dispersal system is fraying at the edges and there is evidence of a drift back to London of people wanting support."