Clearsprings awash with profit
In 2019 the Home Office awarded six regional contracts across the UK for a ten-year period to provide accommodation, support and transport services for asylum seekers pending decisions on their applications for leave to remain. Clearsprings Ready Homes Ltd was the only group to bid in the south of England, thus obtaining what seems to be a monopoly contract running until September 2029 to provide these services within this region.
It not only runs the Napier Barracks in Folkestone but spot-books hotels – including those identified in Hastings – to house the huge increase in numbers.
Just how profitable its operations are was revealed last October when its accounts filed with Companies House showed an astonishing level of profit for the year ending January 2022. On a turnover of £502m –up from £163m the previous year – the company made before tax profits of almost £35m, compared to £4.4m in 2020-21.
The beneficiary of at least 75% of these profits appears to be a single shareholder, a Mr Graham King of Rayleigh, Essex, via a holding company, Clearsprings (Management) Limited.
The directors state in the accounts: “Demand for accommodation for asylum seekers has remained high throughout the year. This has been driven by an ever-increasing influx of asylum applicants to the UK due to high levels of political and economic turmoil in many countries. Contingency accommodation including hotels has increased over the year…The number of arrivals per year is expected to continue at a high level for the foreseeable future.”
The company website makes more qualitative declarations: “We don’t just provide accommodation, we also deliver transportation services, repairs and maintenance and safeguarding support for residents. We also work closely with non-government organisations, local voluntary groups, statutory services, local authorities and landlords to ensure the properties are fully compliant and the welfare of the residents is closely managed… The welfare and safeguarding of our residents is at the heart of our business, and is the key focus when delivering our services.”
The company was invited by HIP last week to describe what communications it has had either with local authorities (Hastings Borough Council and/or East Sussex County Council) or with local voluntary groups over the recent spot-booking of two hotels in Hastings; also how the welfare of the incoming residents is “managed” and what safeguards it undertakes for any minor-age children. It has not responded.
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