Accommodation for asylum seekers will cost the taxpayer triple the amount the Home Office first claimed, according to new figures.
Contracts signed by the Conservative government in 2019 were expected to see £4.5bn of public cash paid to three companies over a 10-year period.
But a report by spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) says that number is now expected to be £15.3bn.
The NAO says ministers have "few levers" to control the rising costs, which have largely been driven by an increase in the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels.
The average yearly cost of asylum accommodation is now expected to be higher than the amount ministers hope to save from cutting the winter fuel payment.
The NAO report, which was commissioned by Parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee, says the number of asylum seekers in paid-for accommodation increased from around 47,000 in December 2019 to 110,000 in December 2024.
Three quarters of all the money spent on asylum accommodation currently goes on hotels, despite them only accounting for around a third of all the asylum seekers being housed.
The NAO says that private providers who sign deals with the government may profit more from hotels than other types of accommodation.
In 2019, Conservative ministers signed seven regional contracts with three companies – Serco, Mears and Clearsprings – to help house asylum seekers.
The NAO says the three companies made a combined profit of £383m on asylum accommodation contracts between September 2019 and August 2024.
A large part of the extra costs is accounted for by Clearsprings' contract in the south of England, which has risen from £0.7bn to an expected £7bn.
Clearsprings' founder and director, Graham King, has previously donated to the Conservative Party, through other companies he has owned.
