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The UK is to end use of the Bibby Stockholm barge to house asylum seekers, bringing a close to the previous Conservative government’s contentious and costly initiatives for migrant accommodation.
The Home Office said on Tuesday that a decision had been taken not to renew the contract for use of the vessel, which is berthed at Portland in Dorset, beyond January 2025.
The decision formed part of Labour’s commitment to speed up the processing of asylum claims and save money on housing the tens of thousands of people caught up in the asylum system, the Home Office added.
Dame Angela Eagle, minister for border security and asylum, said the government was “determined to restore order to the asylum system, so that it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly”.
Former home secretary Suella Braverman said the vessel, which had a capacity to house just over 500 men, was intended to ease accommodation pressure when the national bill for housing asylum seekers in hotels had risen to more than £6mn a day.
But human rights charities have been outraged by the conditions on the barge, which has been compared to a prison hulk. There was one suicide recorded on the barge last year.
The costs of leasing, refurbishing the Bibby Stockholm after its water system was found to contain the bacteria that causes Legionnaires disease, as well as maintenance contracts, undermined government attempts to portray its use as a cost-saving measure.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Monday that the previous government had spent £700mn on another of its most controversial plans — to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, before any had actually got off the ground. The new Labour government has also scrapped that initiative.
Decommissioning the Bibby Stockholm formed part of a projected £7.7bn of savings in asylum costs overall over the next 10 years, the Home Office said.
“This wasn’t a good plan on so many levels,” said Nicola David, founder of the One Life to Live charity, who described its use to accommodate asylum seekers as “performative cruelty”.
“The barge was rotten. It made no sense from a safety perspective. There was nothing about it that was good . . . thankfully Labour have seen that,” she said.
She added that at one point when there were only a few dozen people on board, it was costing “more than a suite at the Ritz and dinner at Langhan’s Brasserie for a night in a shared cabin”.
By November 2023, the total official costs for using the barge were £25mn. Discontinuing its use would save £20mn next year, the Home Office said.