Labour blocks Bicester MPs bid to force transparency over asylum sites

Calum Miller, Liberal Democrat MP for Bicester and Woodstock, has criticised Labour MPs after they voted down his proposals to require ministers to publish suitability assessments and full cost estimates before opening large asylum accommodation sites.

His two amendments to the Immigration and Asylum Bill were rejected at committee stage today after Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, pushed them to a vote (3 November). They followed concerns about the Home Office’s proposal to accommodate up to 1,256 people at MOD Bicester for ten years.

The first amendment, NC30, would require a published assessment of sites intended for 300 or more people, covering safe access, local healthcare and policing capacity, safeguarding, environmental constraints and the impact on neighbouring communities. Ministers would have to consult the relevant local authorities.

The second, NC31, would require publication of the estimated set-up and running costs, total expected expenditure and cost per person, alongside a comparison with alternatives. Both assessments would have to be published before a site opened.

Unresolved questions over safe pedestrian access, sewage disposal and electricity at MOD Bicester demonstrated why these duties were needed. Calum Miller’s September analysis, reported in The Times, estimated that establishing the site could cost more than £250 million, with the total over ten years potentially exceeding £1 billion.

Calum Miller MP said:

“Residents around MOD Bicester have been asking perfectly reasonable questions about this proposal for months. How will people get safely to and from the site? Can local services cope? What will the full bill be?

“My amendments would have required ministers to publish the evidence on suitability and cost before opening large asylum sites. Labour MPs had the opportunity to put those basic safeguards into law. They chose to vote them down.

“The Government wants to put up to 1,256 people on a former military storage site for a decade. The unresolved questions about safe access, sewage and power will not disappear because Labour has rejected greater scrutiny.

“I remain firmly opposed to this plan for MOD Bicester. I will keep standing up for local residents and pressing the Government for answers. Residents deserve to know what is being proposed in their name, and taxpayers deserve to know what they are being asked to pay.”