The boss of a firm which made a fortune housing asylum seekers in “squalid” conditions has a new home himself – a sprawling £1.1 million mansion.
Former Army major James Vyvyan-Robinson, 64, and his wife Nicola splashed out on a riverside home complete with music room and drawing room.
He is managing director of Clearsprings Ready Homes, which raked in £28million of profits last year. It is contracted by the Home Office to run hotels and other accommodation for asylum seekers.
But some sites — such as Napier Barracks in Folkestone, Kent — are dogged by criticism. When Covid struck, residents protested about sharing with those infected.
After a visit by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Immigration Detention in February, MPs and peers called for the barracks to be shut down. The facilities were described as “filthy and decrepit” – a far cry from Mr Vyvyan-Robinson’s luxurious new home set in lush gardens in central Scotland.
The MPs’ report said Napier was in an “extremely poor” state, there was inadequate safeguarding of the vulnerable and “near total lack of privacy”.
Tim Naor Hilton, CEO at the charity Refugee Action, said: “The Government is wasting public money and allowing its contractors to make millions while providing substandard, unsafe accommodation for people who come to the UK in search of protection. Asylum accommodation is of a disgracefully low standard and people have experienced serious risk of harm while housed there.”
Clearsprings has faced a barrage of criticism. Penally Camp in Pembrokeshire, Wales – also run by the firm – was closed in March. Inspectors found it was “rundown and unsuitable”, lacked Covid protection and fire safety – while residents’ mental health was deteriorating.
Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock said: “Failure is allowing Clearsprings’ shareholders to trouser large sums off the back of the Goverment’s self-inflicted asylum crisis – at the expense of British taxpayers paying £7million a day for emergency hotel use.”
Poor conditions have been exposed at other Clearsprings sites including 18 flats in Uxbridge, West London, which were found in January to be rife with damp, mould, water leaks and pest infestations.
Clearsprings, which has a registered address in Rayleigh, Essex, has a 10-year contract ending in 2029 to manage asylum seeker accommodation. Latest accounts show annual profits to January 2022 rocketed from £4,419,841 to £28,012,487. A spokesman for Clearsprings said: “We have no comment to make.”
