Linton on Ouse: Plans would have cost taxpayer more than £30m, BBC investigation reveals

Plans were announced by former Home Secretary Priti Patel earlier this year to house up to 1,500 men at the former base of Linton-on-Ouse near York while their claims were processed.

But the plans were shelved by Government following the resignation of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, after Liz Truss and her competitor Rishi Sunak both distanced themselves from the plans following heated local opposition, including from the Conservative controlled Hambleton District Council

The Home Office had made plans to outsource the day-to-day running of the centre to Serco, and a BBC investigation has found the Government had outlined a figure of £32.8m to be paid to the contracting firm for the first two years of running the centre.

Both Serco and the Home Office refused to tell the BBC if any compensation had been paid to Serco, who had already laid out money getting the centre ready.

The proposed centre, just yards away from the centre of the village, was widely opposed by villagers who said it was the “wrong plan, wrong place.”

An asylum contracts expert told the BBC he was “absolutely certain” the Home Office would have paid compensation to Serco after the deal was reported to have been signed in May.

John Grayson said: “All public sector contracts have got clauses in them about what will happen, when and if they are cancelled by public authorities.”

Earlier this year it was revealed Serco had opened recruitment for staff who needed no experience working with vulnerable people in a role “not for the faint hearted,” according to job adverts seen by the Yorkshire Post.

The future of the base is now uncertain.

The MOD is now set to retain control of the site for at least the next two years.

In recent years it had been predominantly used to provide fast jet pilot training, but in 2019 the RAF began using a base on Anglesey in Wales instead.