Campaigners blast purchase of former Northeye prison

Campaigners are accusing the Government of wasting millions of pounds of taxpayers' money after buying a former Bexhill prison proposed to house asylum seekers.

A Freedom of Information request by the Save Northeye group revealed they had purchased the site for £15.3 million on 21 September.

The figure is around £9 million more than the figure paid for by a property developer in August 2022.

The site has been proposed to hold up to 1200 migrants.

But the Home Office say no final decision has been made on its use.

Jeff Newnham, from the Save Northeye group, said the project is a waste of money.

"It's on the edge of a ramsar site which is a wetlands site, it's got problems with contamination with asbestos, the local plan says the whole place has to be demolished and levelled."

"So they've got to knock down every building there, do an environmental assessment, before they even lay a brick."

Mr Newnham joked that the government would benefit from the advice of used car salesmen in negotiating leases for sites.

"The government need to be a bit more clever when they do these procurements," he said.

"It's not too late to back out gracefully - the first loss is the cheapest."

The government announced yesterday that they were planning to stop using hotels to house asylum seekers.

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick told MPs the use of hotels was costing taxpayers £8 million a day.

Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio, Mr Jenrick said it was important the government "stood up alternatives" to house people who'd arrived illegally.

"We want these hotels to be used by businesses and tourists, for birthdays and weddings, and all these things we care about."

He added "it's very important that illegal migrants are housed in basic appropriate accommodation, and not in hotels."