LONDON: Britain’s Labour government pledged to cut a backlog in asylum applications and end “the costly use of hotels to house asylum seekers,” saving £1 billion ($1.3 billion) annually, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced on Wednesday.
“Funding that I have provided today ... will cut the asylum backlog, hear more appeal cases and return people who have no rights to be here, saving the taxpayer a billion pounds a year,” Reeves said in her Spending Review that sets out Treasury expenditure and savings over the next few years.
The number of UK asylum seekers has risen sharply in recent years, with tens of thousands of applications waiting to be decided, according to official figures.
Labour, which came to power last July, has set about tackling the situation.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has started formal talks with unspecified countries to create “return centers” outside the UK for those who have exhausted all legal avenues to remain in the country.
