Editor's note: This brief was summarised by The Property AI Team from a report by Property118. Read the original article for full details.
Clearsprings Asylum Accommodation Profits: Are Landlords Getting a Fair Deal?
MPs have questioned the profits, reinvestment and group payments associated with Clearsprings. Property118 is asking the landlords who supply its properties what they make of the arrangement, and whether their experience matches the promise of guaranteed rent and less hassle.
Guaranteed rent, a long contract and less day-to-day management would appeal to plenty of landlords, particularly those who want dependable income without managing every tenancy themselves. Add a business supplying accommodation to the Home Office and the proposition deserves a proper look. Property118 says it wants to hear from the landlords who supply the homes, arguing that readers with first-hand experience can tell us something the headline figures cannot: how the arrangement works when it is your property, your capital and your contract.
Questions put to Clearsprings
The article refers to a short video combining separate exchanges from the Home Affairs Committee hearing on 13 May 2025. The witness was managing director Steve Lakey, rather than Graham King, whose wealth is discussed. In the official parliamentary transcript, Lakey puts Clearsprings' average profit margin at approximately 6.9%, subject to contractual profit sharing. Later, referring to money held in the group bank account, he speaks of approximately £300 million in profits over five years, with most still available for reinvestment.
MP Chris Murray also raises reports of £17 million paid to an offshore consultancy. Lakey confirms that Bespoke Strategy Solutions, a UAE company owned by King, invoices Clearsprings Group for services. He disputes the stated amount and says the payments come from the group, rather than Ready Homes, and are excluded from the Home Office profit-share calculation. The article states the exchange raises questions about the payments; it does not establish wrongdoing.
What the £41,000 figure means
The figure that first caught the author's attention was £41,000 per asylum seeker per year. The underlying IPPR research published in October 2024 estimated the average cost of housing and supporting an asylum seeker across the system in 2023/24. It was not a published rental rate payable to a landlord or a tariff specific to Clearsprings. Hotels and self-catering homes have very different operating costs.
Parliamentary scrutiny has also examined whether the contracts give providers sufficient incentive to replace expensive hotels with cheaper accommodation. The Home Affairs Committee's subsequent report concluded that the arrangements could reward providers more for hotel use than for procuring other suitable housing. That leaves a question landlords will understand immediately: if ordinary rented homes can help reduce the public bill, what terms make supplying those homes worthwhile?
Later evidence
The article notes developments since the hearing. The Home Office's 2026–27 estimates memorandum says that, by 4 November 2025, Clearsprings had returned the full £33 million identified for profit sharing, through arrangements involving credit notes. The earlier discussion about money awaiting repayment should therefore be read alongside that update. Clearsprings also submitted further written evidence in June 2025, saying it had recently invested approximately £7 million in specialist accommodation for people with significant medical needs.
Source: Property118