Money talks! 12 September 2023: Politics Home: £121m in Dividends to Shareholders of Companies Running Asylum Accommodation
Private companies contracted to run Government-funded accommodation for asylum seekers in the UK have collectively paid £121m in dividends to shareholders since securing the most recent contracts in 2019, according to research by PoliticsHome.
Mears, Serco and Clearsprings, the three firms that have been awarded contracts to run the vast majority of the UK’s asylum seeker accommodation, also posted a collective profit of well over £800m in that time. Since 2019, Clearsprings Ready Homes Ltd has posted profits of £42.7m and paid £37.9m in dividends, according to Companies House filings. Clearsprings housing stock is mostly used for asylum seeker accommodation, but they also provide private rented accommodation as well as non-convention rentals, such as homes for ex-convicts.
Mears, a social housing provider, has recorded net profits of £89,800,000 from a combination of conventional rentals and asylum seeker accommodation. The company won the contract to provide asylum seeker accommodation in the North East and Yorkshire, Scotland and Northern Ireland in 2019 and has paid £26.27m in dividends to its shareholders in that time. While Serco has posted profits of £729.6m since 2019, the firm runs a wide array of other services meaning profit from housing asylum seekers only accounts for a fraction of this income. It also paid £56.8m in shareholder dividends.
Read more: Politics-Home, https://tinyurl.com/mrx5zz9f