Profit slashed at billionaire’s asylum accommodation empire
Profit at one of the Home Office’s providers of asylum accommodation has been slashed in half during its latest financial year, it has been revealed.
Clearsprings Ready Homes, which is run by ‘asylum king’ Graham King, has posted a pre-tax profit of £58.7m for the 12 months to 31 January, 2025.
That total is down from the £120.1m it raked in during 2024.
Since coming to power last year, the Labour government has pledged to clear the asylum backlog by increasing resources dedicated to processing cases.
New accounts filed with Companies House also reveal its turnover was cut from £1.7bn to £1.3bn over the same period.
The business also did not issue a dividend for the financial year, having paid out £90m in 2024.
Clearsprings Ready Homes is one of three contractors used by the Home office to provide asylum accommodation. The other two are Mears Limited and Serco.
There is a profit-sharing agreement between the government and the providers but the threshold for payback has never been made public.
Graham King entered the Sunday Times rich list in 2024 with an estimated net worth of £750m.
He improved his ranking from number 221 to 154 this year as his fortune swelled to £1bn.
Asylum accommodation empire expecting further demand cut
In a statement signed off by the board, Clearsprings Ready Homes said there had been a decrease in the requirement for asylum accommodation over the course of its financial year.
The firm’s contracts with the Home Office are set to run until September 2029.
The business added that it is expecting a further reduction in the number of people placed by the government in asylum accommodation during its current financial year by between five and 10 per cent.
The accounts for Clearsprings Ready Homes’ parent company, Clearsprings (Management), show its pre-tax profit declined from £119.3m to £62.5m in the year.
Its turnover also fell from £1.7bn to £1.3bn over the same period.
Last month, BBC News reported that Clearsprings Ready Homes had generated almost £187m in profit since it was awarded contracts by the government to provide asylum accommodation.
Since 2020, Clearsprings Ready Homes has paid almost £183m in dividends to Clearsprings (Management), whose sole shareholder is Graham King.