Can AI solve the asylum housing crisis?

 

I asked AI about international solutions that could also be applied to the asylum housing problem in the UK. 

The response has been included below. I wonder if there's potential for Canada, Germany and Sweden's models to work here? 

Tensions continue to increase over concerns about the cost, the impact on communities and public safety. 

It's hard to know how much the government actually understands or is addressing these problems as we're getting little information or communication. 

Funding it needs to be done responsibly and with due consideration of what the people of this country want. 

AI Response (Co-pilot)

Several international asylum housing strategies could be adapted effectively for the UK. Here are the most promising ones, tailored to Britain's context:

🇨🇦 Canada’s Private Sponsorship Model

• How it works: Community groups, charities, or individuals sponsor asylum seekers, providing housing and support.

• Why it fits the UK:

  • Britain has a strong civil society and charitable sector.

  • Could reduce pressure on government housing and foster community integration.

• Implementation idea: Expand existing refugee sponsorship schemes to include asylum seekers, with government oversight and funding.

🇳🇱 Netherlands’ Mixed-Use Housing

• How it works: Asylum seekers live alongside students and low-income residents in shared housing developments.

• Why it fits the UK:

  • Promotes social cohesion and reduces stigma.

  • Could be piloted in university towns or urban regeneration zones.

• Implementation idea: Partner with housing associations and universities to create inclusive housing hubs.

🇩🇪 Germany’s Modular Container Housing

• How it works: Prefabricated housing units are deployed quickly in urban and suburban areas.

• Why it fits the UK:

  • Addresses urgent housing shortages.

  • Can be scaled up rapidly and relocated as needed.

• Implementation idea: Use brownfield sites or underused public land for modular housing villages.

🇸🇪 Sweden’s Municipal Quota System

• How it works: Every municipality must accept a share of asylum seekers.

• Why it fits the UK:

  • Prevents overburdening specific cities like London or Manchester.

  • Encourages national solidarity and fair distribution.

• Implementation idea: Introduce a voluntary pilot program with incentives for councils that participate.

🇫🇷 France’s Use of Vacant Public Buildings

• How it works: Repurposes unused government buildings for temporary housing.

• Why it fits the UK:

  • The UK has thousands of vacant public properties.

  • Could be paired with renovation grants and NGO partnerships.

• Implementation idea: Create a national inventory of unused buildings and fast-track conversion projects.

🇳🇿 New Zealand’s Wraparound Support in Public Housing

• How it works: Refugees receive housing plus integrated services like healthcare, education, and job training.

• Why it fits the UK:

  • Improves long-term outcomes and reduces dependency.

  • Aligns with NHS and council service networks.

• Implementation idea: Designate specific public housing units for asylum seekers with embedded support teams.

• 
  

Why I get frustrated with the NHS

Sometimes the NHS can be exceptional. Other times the standard of care is absolutely shocking. Both in the case of some of the junior doctors and senior consultants really do not deserve to be doctors. Pay rises - ha I say. You have got to be joking. Management should not be paid because you can only describe what is happening as complete incompetence. 

I appreciate the importance of free health care. I believe we need it. However we are paying for a service that needs a complete overhaul. 

We once said we were proud of these people but what they are delivering, not everyone, but many who should be banned from ever practising, who are walking law suits, almost deserve a special place in the deepest recesses of the burning centre well below ground. 

I am referring to a certain part of a certain hospital. I have been beyond disappointed and I am certain it is a systemic issue. 

We should have quality care despite staff and resource shortages. It's not just numbers. It's about basic human decency. 

Whether Sir Kier's plans to overhaul the NHS with online appointments actually addresses the heart of the problem and understands how the rot is spreading, well I wonder indeed. Read the comments for the YT video, and you see many also don't seem to think the ship is on course into the sunset. 

Rant and outrage over for now. Let's fix the NHS and do better if we don't want a broken Britain. 

Is Labour failing? Why the Britannia Hotel Asylum Seekers may be fatal.

I had hoped, like many, that a change in government might mean we can worry less about what is happening, and we could trust the politicians to get the job done, but the Britannia Hotel Canary Wharf Asylum Seekers decision this week shows how out of touch they are. It makes me wonder if this is fatal. Or can they come back from it? 

Hotels For Seekers

I imagine that a global headline of London Canary Wharf hotel for asylum seekers sends the wrong message as a starting point.

Disgruntled tourists lose hotel rooms to asylum seekers also has been less than brilliant for our tourism industry. 

Londoners are wondering why prime real estate during a housing crisis is going to asylum seekers. Meanwhile, stretched borough services which locals struggle to access will now also have possibly 400 to 500 asylum seekers in one of the poorest London boroughs. 

The implications is that asylum seekers get a holiday in London in a central location that most Brits could not afford. 

Cost Of Living

We're still feeling the effects of a cost of living crisis. Hello! Open your eyes and see how much people are struggling. 

Londoners are forced to move to other cities, yet there is housing for asylum seekers. Clearly there is great frustration about the unfairness, of this, and the public paying for this whilst cuts to services continue. 

Services

The NHS staff , teachers and police aren't coping. Councils are pushed to do more with less. Both providers and users feel the grave injustice. Unemployment soars and those looking for work are finding it tough. Many who are employed also are trapped in toxic environments and faced with challenge after challenge. Charities are forced to make sad and tough choices too. 

The Impact On Locals

Locals with large numbers of asylum seekers tell of how it has impacted their communitues negatively. 

An article about the experience in Barbican in the city of London is disturbing. It details crime, businesses declining and a litany of negative effects. 

Where councils are trying to find the right balance, for example this recent article, suggest:

"The Park Hotel in Diss, Norfolk, said it is currently contracted to accommodate families only and has made clear to the Home Office that it “will have no alternative but to close” if that changes."

Asylum Seekers

The reality is that not all asylum seekers are going to cause problems. Some are genuinely going to be wonderful contributors eventually to our country. However, managing the processing of them is obviously highly flawed. 

The stories about treatment to asylum seekers sound like we are failing them too. We are a nation filled with compassion and decency. The Big Issue several years ago offers insight to the poor standards we have delivered. Similarly in Kilburn in a converted hostel, according to the Camden New Journal. 

Given Kilburn is in Brent, which has had significant increases in housing the homeless with concerning implications for the council budget, is the asylum seekers policy causing or adding to our council's fiscal problems? 

Mental Health

The biggest mental health crisis is upon us from a million different directions, and everyone is denying it exists. 

Waiting lists and barriers to access are beyond belief. The effects on employment, benefits, crime and other services are a recurring series of earthquakes. 

Meanwhile efficiency cuts to the NHS which supposedly won't impact patients will, and this pressure to save money, it is breaking the system. We were proud of what was built, and now so many are becoming disillusioned. 

The Prime Minister

It gives me no joy to write any of this. People are angry with our Prime Minister. They don't believe he is acting in their interests. He is seen as out of touch. No one is interested in hearing excuses any more. 

Scan social media. Listen to what they are saying on the streets. 

In a Victoria Derbyshire TikTok video, this comment had 3,000 likes: 

"I’m embarrassed to call myself British anymore, this government are a complete disgrace to all of us and it’s just getting worse day by day."

Britannia Hotel 

And that is before the Britannia story has taken off, which incidentally I wouldn't be surprised if this gains momentum and is a massive issue if they don't do a u turn.

More than 1,000 comments on this national paper's article, as local Facebook group posts grow. Anger and fear continue to spill onto the screens. Frustration is also prevalent for those who have family forced to move further away or who came through legal migration routes. 

Even on TikTok, @Krizz has in excess of 1 million views for a video on immigration. 4,000 people have commented. 

If the labour government are so inept to not see how bad all the optics of the Britannia Hotel asylum seekers decision is, then Labour deserve to lose the next election, not that I actually want any of the other alternatives, but sadly that seems like the direction we are heading towards.