Taxpayers face £270m bill for Linton-on-Ouse asylum centre

Taxpayers could be landed with a £270.9million bill for a proposed asylum centre at the former RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse, a North Yorkshire village of around 700 people, according to estimates from local campaigners who say the site may house up to 1,200 asylum seekers for as little as 23 months.

Linton Action has set out the figure in an open letter to Chancellor John Healey, stressing it is their own calculation rather than an official Home Office total. They point to comments from North Yorkshire’s Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime, Jo Coles, that the base may have to return to the Ministry of Defence by July 2029, plus a possible six-month decommissioning period that would leave roughly 23 months of actual use.

That works out at between £443 and £853 per occupied bed depending on occupancy, against a hotel benchmark of £144.98. Professor Olga Matthias, speaking for the group, told GB News: “It is an estimate, but it’s based off existing facilities of that ilk, so RAF Wethersfield springs to mind, because that’s already operational. It’s based on the fact that you’ve got all the set-up costs, all the decommissioning costs, you’ve then got a projected cost of about £240 a night, assuming full occupancy. Now, looking at all the bases that have been used so far… they operate on between 30-50 per cent occupancy, and so if it is projected at £240 a night, when you drop that to 50 per cent occupancy, that shoots up that first figure.”

Britain cannot keep writing blank cheques for schemes that cost more than the hotels they are meant to replace while villages are left in the dark. Ministers who talk of savings must show the full bill first, not after the contracts are signed. Local people deserve straight answers on water, power, security and the true length of stay.

Earlier collapse and rising bills

Plans first drawn up under the previous Conservative government in 2022 collapsed when the MoD withdrew permission. Utility supplies after years of abandonment remain a major worry and a potential extra cost. The National Audit Office’s 2024 investigation found the early large-sites programme was expected to cost £46million more than hotels and recorded £2.9million in fruitless spending on the abandoned 2022 Linton proposal.

The group’s letter insists any business case must cover capital works, water, sewage, electricity, security, transport, healthcare, policing, emergency services, maintenance, decommissioning and site restoration. “The full costs at RAF Linton-on-Ouse must be counted,” it states. Matthias accused ministers of frequent contradictions, noting that when challenged on higher costs they fall back on the manifesto pledge to empty hotels rather than on value for money. NAO reports going back years have already flagged former military bases as more expensive.

William Yarwood of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said taxpayers are being hammered by the eye-watering cost of illegal migration and called hundreds of pounds per bed per night an outrageous waste, urging the Home Office to stop the boats. Robert Bates of the Centre for Migration Control said the department had made no real assessment of the fiscal costs and was now wedded to a plan dearer than hotels, damaging tight-knit communities while the taxpayer foots an exorbitant bill.

Village left waiting

Neither the campaign group nor the village has had any contact from the Government since the revival of the plans was announced four months ago. Sir Alec Shelbrooke, the Conservative MP for Wetherby and Easingwold, has been deferred to the civil service and earlier observed that the only people supporting the plan are the Labour Government.

Original source: GB News