All names
LA
Public moneyLocal government£883m

Local authorities

Councils of England, Wales and Scotland

In one sentence

Take Home Office grants, house arrivals, and hire the charities that fight removals.

Councils are the landing layer. The 2025–26 Asylum Grant pays £1,200 per asylum seeker already in the borough and £100 a month for each extra bed. NAO: £883 million in Home Office grants in 2024–25, including unaccompanied children who become looked-after children at full social-care cost. Resettlement tariffs (UKRS, Afghans) run for years. Councils then subcontract “wraparound” — advice, ESOL, destitution, hotel liaison — to refugee NGOs. Some Labour and Green cabinets pass sanctuary motions and raid-ban motions while cashing the dispersal cheque. That is the local-authority file.

Each Recipient accommodating Asylum Seekers … will receive a £1200 payment per Asylum Seeker in all accommodation types.

Home Office, Funding Instruction for Local Authorities: Asylum Grant 2025–26

What they did

  1. 2024–25

    £883 million from the Home Office

    Largest grant line after hotels. Includes UASC. Children’s services in dispersal towns are now asylum services by another name.

  2. 2025–26

    Dispersal tariff

    £1,200 a head plus extra-bed payments. Occupancy is a revenue line.

  3. 2026

    Raid bans

    Green-led London boroughs moved to stop staff helping immigration enforcement — while still on the grant.

This file is about public money, not a Commons division. The grant table is on the Money page.

Sources: HO Asylum Grant 2025–26; NAO 2025; Guardian, 15 Jul 2026