by Rakib Ehsan, spiked
The poorest towns in the country are being forced to bear the brunt of the small-boats crisis.
The small-boats emergency on the English south coast is showing no signs of subsiding. As of this week, 10,000 illegal migrants have arrived in the UK in 2025 so far – the earliest point in a year this milestone has been reached since records began. Keir Starmer’s promise to ‘smash the gangs’ that smuggle migrants into Britain has never looked so laughable.
If anything, Labour is subsidising the gangs’ business model. At the weekend, the Home Office launched a campaign encouraging private-sector landlords to offer their properties to English Channel migrants, with the British taxpayer picking up the tab for rent and utilities for five years. As part of the policy, Serco – one of three private contractors working for the government – is also offering landlords free property management and free council tax bills, as well as covering full repair and maintenance work.
Serco published a list of local authorities that would be covered by the scheme, although this was removed from the web following a social-media backlash (Labour outright denies it is a map of planned asylum accommodation). Predictably, the list includes some of the most deprived parts of Britain.