The Rise of Britain’s First ‘Asylum Billionaire’
A migrant hotel firm, owned by a British entrepreneur known as the country’s first “asylum billionaire,” has made nearly £187 million in profits since being awarded a lucrative taxpayer-funded contract. Clearsprings Ready Homes, led by Essex tycoon Graham King, is one of three companies appointed under a 10-year Home Office deal to provide short-term accommodation for asylum seekers.
The contract, which runs until September 2029, is estimated to be worth £7.3 billion. This figure was initially valued at £1 billion before a surge in small boat arrivals increased the demand for housing. Mr. King’s wealth has grown significantly due to Britain’s growing asylum backlog, with the 57-year-old now estimated to be worth £1.015 billion after a 35% rise in his fortune.
Mr. King and his Latvian girlfriend, Lolita Lace, divide their time between a luxury apartment in Mayfair and another home in Monaco, while enjoying lavish holidays to the Caribbean and French Alps. The former caravan park and disco owner, who grew up in Canvey Island, was first catapulted onto the Sunday Times Rich List last year after capitalizing on the small boats boom.
He is now ranked 154th in the 2025 list of the UK’s wealthiest people, rising from 221st place last year when he made his debut on the index with £750 million.
Expanding Operations and Profit Growth
Clearsprings provides accommodation for around 30,000 asylum seekers in the south of England and Wales, with about half of them staying in subcontracted hotels. Analysis of its accounts on Companies House shows the company’s profits in the last four years total £186,989,435.
Despite this, asylum seekers have complained of squalid conditions in his hotels, including allegations of “inedible” food and rationing toilet paper. Charities have written an open letter to Clearsprings, accusing the firm of housing residents in “miserable” conditions while “millions” of taxpayer money “is simply taken in profit by a handful of private companies.”
Taking over hotels to provide supposedly short-term accommodation for asylum seekers has turned Mr. King into the largest individual beneficiary of Britain’s broken immigration system. With some 33,000 migrants arriving in Britain on small boats this year so far, there is no sign his fortunes will turn any time soon.
A Growing Business and Financial Success
In 2024, the Mail highlighted how Mr. King had used his fortune to rebrand himself as a “gentleman racing driver” while whisking his girlfriend on a string of romantic holidays. As of last year, he claimed to have travelled 245,029 miles and visited 276 cities around the world.
The businessman’s wealth has grown as a direct result of Britain’s worsening asylum crisis. Last year saw net migration of 728,000 with more than 108,000 asylum claims—the highest number since records began in 1979 and rising from 91,811 in 2023.
As thousands continue to arrive in small boats, also in record numbers, a backlog of processing claims has led to more than 32,000 asylum seekers being housed in hotels with tens of thousands more in “dispersal accommodation,” such as large houses, bedsits and flats.
Yet it appears officials massively got their sums wrong when it comes to estimating the amount of taxpayers’ money that would be needed to foot the bill. The cost to the Government of 10-year asylum contracts issued in 2019 has rocketed from an estimated £4.5 billion to £15.3 billion, according to the National Audit Office.
It means that on average, the taxpayer will spend £4,191,780 a day on housing asylum seekers over the life of the contracts. How all the money is being spent appears to remain a mystery even to the Home Office, which awarded the contracts to Mr. King’s company Clearsprings Ready Homes and two other firms.
Expansion and Continued Growth
Clearsprings is the largest recipient by far after being awarded two 10-year contracts in 2019, which are funded from the foreign aid budget. It’s been estimated that Clearsprings accounts for one in every £20 spent by the Home Office, including on police, fire and other services.
The firm also signed an extension to its contract with Kent County Council to provide accommodation and support to young asylum seekers and other care leavers. The Mail previously revealed that the business is now so bloated with government cash that it has one of the highest revenues per employee of any company in the UK.
Latest Companies House records show the firm made an operating profit of nearly £117 million—up from nearly £75 million the previous year. In 2020, Clearsprings made an operating profit of just £763,000.
Bosses including Mr. King, who is listed as owning between 25% and 50% of it, were paid dividends of £90 million during the year, compared with £57 million in the previous 12 months, according to the accounts.
During the year, the number of staff employed grew from 278 to 391—with its annual turnover amounting to an incredible £4,460,060 per employee. The accounts disclosed that the figure equated to an operating profit for each employee of £298,880—compared with £269,377 in the previous year.
Future Prospects and Company Assets
And it would seem the future remains bright for the company despite pledges by the Government to move away from migrant hotels. One entry in the accounts states: “Demand for accommodation for asylum seekers including contingency accommodation such as hotels has remained high throughout the year. Political and economic upheavals in many countries have driven a high number of asylum applications within the UK during the year.”
A strategic report noted: “Government legislation and policy is designed to reduce the number of asylum applicants arriving in the UK. Some reduction in the numbers accommodated in future is anticipated.” But it added that the long-term nature of its contracts and “pre-agreed rates” meant risks were “minimal.”
In reality, Mr. King will have pocketed an even higher proportion of the profits due to him having 75% or more majority control of the company’s parent firm Clearsprings (Management) Ltd.
Despite the massive business operation, Mr. King’s firms appear to have very few assets of their own. Clearsprings owns 16 properties in Wales and the north west largely made up of two-up-two-down Coronation Street-style homes.
