On September 24, 2025, the UK’s Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood ordered an urgent review into the controversial and costly use of taxis to ferry asylum seekers between hotels and to medical appointments. The move came after a string of revelations from a BBC investigation, which exposed a pattern of migrants being sent on lengthy, expensive taxi journeys—sometimes hundreds of miles long—at the taxpayer’s expense.
The scale of the issue has caught the attention of politicians across the spectrum, charities, and the British public. According to the BBC, one asylum seeker, identified as Kadir, described being instructed to take a 250-mile taxi ride to see a consultant who had previously treated him for a knee problem. The journey, which cost the Home Office £600, left Kadir bewildered. “Should the Home Office give me the ticket for the train? This is the easy way, and they know they spend too much money. We know as well, but we don’t have any choice. It’s crazy,” he told the BBC.
But Kadir’s case is far from an isolated incident. The BBC’s investigation, which included access to four hotels housing asylum seekers, revealed a “constant stream of cabs arriving and leaving,” with some journeys unusually long and others surprisingly short. The report found that when asylum seekers are moved between hotels, they often keep the same NHS doctors—especially for GP referrals—necessitating lengthy taxi rides across the country. For these trips, public transport or walking isn’t presented as an option. Instead, asylum seekers are issued a bus pass for one return journey per week, but any other necessary travel, such as to a doctor’s appointment, is arranged by taxi through an automated system at the hotel reception.
The total cost of this practice remains a mystery. When the BBC submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Home Office, officials admitted they do not keep figures on annual spending for taxiing migrants to appointments and between hotels. Home Office sources, responding to the BBC’s findings, insisted that transportation rates are set by contract on a per-person, per-mile basis, and not by vehicle meter measurement. Still, the sums involved are staggering. Clearsprings Ready Homes, a Home Office contractor responsible for housing migrants in southern England and Wales, reportedly paid Evo Taxis £1.7 million over two years for such journeys. Another taxi firm, PTS-247, is said to rake in £344,000 a month, charging £1.85 per mile for trips over 175 miles, and is currently embroiled in a £2.75 million legal dispute with Clearsprings over unpaid invoices.
Political reaction has been swift and heated. Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, “I’m not surprised that this was a feature that caught people’s eye,” and agreed that an investigation into the system was warranted. Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook, speaking a day earlier, described the practice as “very questionable,” adding, “These are not ordinary citizens just jumping on a bus. These are asylum seekers having claims processed. That’s why they’re in hotels in the first place.” Pennycook also said the government would “look into those cases.”
Critics from across the political spectrum have condemned the mounting costs. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp argued, “Every £600 taxi ride for migrants is money that should be paying for British patients to see their GP or for ambulances to turn up on time. This is why people feel the system is rigged against them. Labour are writing a blank cheque for illegal immigration while services for hard-working families are strained.” Reform UK MP Lee Anderson went further, calling the scandal “just the tip of the iceberg and yet another example of how the Tories and Labour have spent billions supporting migrants at the expense of our own people.”
The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, described the taxi spending as “a ridiculous waste of taxpayer money and shows exactly why the government must take the asylum crisis seriously and end hotel use.”
The controversy over taxi costs is only the latest flashpoint in a wider debate about the UK’s asylum system. The BBC’s investigation also uncovered cramped and often unsafe living conditions in hotels. Reporters found smoke alarms covered with plastic bags as residents cooked meals on electric hobs in bathrooms, and learned of widespread illegal working, with some asylum seekers earning as little as £20 a day to pay off debts to people smugglers or send money home. One 12-year-old girl told the BBC she had spent three-quarters of her life in the asylum system, moving from hotel to hotel: “Once we get settled in a place, then they move us.”
Charities have long warned that housing asylum seekers in hotels is both costly and damaging to community cohesion. The Refugee Council described hotels as “a flashpoint for community tensions and cost billions to the taxpayer.” Protests have erupted outside hotels across the country, sometimes leaving residents feeling isolated and anxious. Asylum seekers told the BBC they did not choose to live in hotels and struggled in “damp and dirty” conditions.
Labour has promised to end the use of asylum hotels by 2029, with Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves claiming the move would save £1 billion per year. However, the former top civil servant at the Home Office has warned that “ups and downs” could derail this target, and Matthew Pennycook was unable to guarantee the deadline would be met, saying only that Labour is “determined” to reach it.
Behind the scenes, the business of transporting migrants is big money. Clearsprings Ready Homes is currently advertising a contract worth up to £5 million for new transport services, including vehicles capable of carrying more than ten migrants at a time. An ex-Serco manager, who supervised five asylum hotels in the North West until last year, claimed migrants used the taxi service almost daily, sometimes inventing appointments for lifts to town or nights out, billing the government tens of thousands of pounds.
Healthcare professionals have also voiced their frustration. NHS psychiatrist Valerie Lucas told The Sun, “This is staggering incompetence. I have patients with schizophrenia who have waited two years for a diagnosis—£600 would have covered that session. I know patients who have died waiting. It shines a light on the system on its knees.” Reform UK’s Dr David Bull added, “If you live here and pay taxes it’s difficult to see a GP in the first instance. But asylum seekers seem to have fast-track access.”
As the government prepares to phase out the use of hotels for asylum seekers, the urgent review ordered by Shabana Mahmood will scrutinize not only the cost of taxi journeys but also the broader issues of value for money, safety, and the impact on communities and public services. The findings may well shape the future of the UK’s approach to asylum accommodation and transport—an issue that, for now, remains both costly and contentious.
