David Lammy, the Justice Secretary, has demanded extra checks by prison governors to ensure the mistake is not repeated but is facing an internal backlash over fears the plans are a knee-jerk response that will add to bureaucracy.
Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, has promised to end the housing of asylum seekers in hotels by 2029 amid mounting pressure over rising costs and a backlash in local communities.
But the committee warned that a promise by ministers to “appeal to popular opinion” without a clear plan for alternative accommodation risks “under-delivery and consequently undermining public trust still further”.
The MPs said that break clauses in the £15.3bn contracts next year and their scheduled end in 2029 offered the Home Office a chance “to draw a line under the current failed, chaotic and expensive system and move to a model that is more effective and offers value for money”.
But the committee warned: “Without a clear long-term plan and the institutional capability to deliver a model that is more effective and offers value for money, past failures risk being repeated.”
More than 32,000 migrants are still living in some 200 hotels at a budgeted cost of £2.1bn a year, or £145 per migrant per night, six times that of other rented housing.
