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G4S, one of three COMPASS companies contracted by the Home Office to provide asylum seeker accommodation up and down the country, has revealed its employer is considering making it mandatory for councils to help resettle refugees. Currently, it is down to a local authority if they chose to accept asylum seekers into their area, and the majority refuse to take part. According to G4S, this means councils that do house asylum seekers are taking a disproportionate amount and the strain on their local services is immense, particularly due to the increased numbers of immigrant refugees coming in from war torn Syria. In a letter to the Home Affairs select committee inquiry into asylum seeker accommodation, John Whitwam, managing director, of G4S immigration and borders, said his firm had been told by the Home Office it was considering making it compulsory for all councils to take part. He said: "After many months of negotiating it has become clear that the unwillingness of local authorities to allow placement of asylum seekers in their areas is entrenched. "In many cases compromise has become impossible. "It is for this reason that the Home Office is considering using its powers to compel participation."

GETTY All councils across England could be forced to house asylum seekers, according to G4S

G4S is the largest provider of asylum accommodation and transport in the UK, currently housing over 18,000 vulnerable asylum seekers. Mr Whitwam said he was responding to "false" claims that contractors such as G4S targeted certain local authority areas because of a glut of cheap accommodation they could use. He said: "The overriding determining factor is, and always has been, access to properties approved by local authorities. "This is because COMPASS providers such as G4S are contractually mandated to consult with local authorities, seeking approval for each property." He said in September G4S found 248 properties across 22 local authorities, and was blocked from using 166 of them by local councils. He said: "Local authorities refused to allow G4S to house asylum seekers at 30 of these properties and failed to respond to our request to accommodate asylum seekers in the remaining 136 properties.

PARLIAMENT.TV John Whitwam, of G4S, giving evidence on asylum accommodation at a Home Affairs select committee

It is for this reason that the Home Office is considering using its powers to compel participation. John Whitwam, managing director, of G4S immigration and borders

"This is typical of our experience in trying to source properties to meet the month on month increase in the size of the accommodated population. "For reference, in September, we saw an increase in the total number of asylum seekers that G4S is responsible for housing of 292. "If providers were free to use those properties that were offered to them by landlords and agents there would be much reduced contingency use of hotels and far greater capacity for the placement of asylum seekers. "Equally importantly, the pattern of placements would be more equitable and avoid concentration around participating authority areas only. "This imbalance between willing and unwilling local authorities is most starkly revealed in the Home Office's own figures listing where asylum seekers are currently housed."

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