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A proposed overhaul of what Labour calls Britain's "broken" asylum system has triggered warnings of a looming clash with local councils, with local authorities now spending nearly £134million more on social care for adult asylum seekers than they were five years ago. And research by the TaxPayers Alliance has indicated that Kent alone is shelling out more than £40million a year.

As councils draw up budgets for 2026-27, campaigners warned the rising bill for asylum-related social care is becoming "yet another ticking time bomb" for town halls already under severe financial strain. The analysis shows total council spending on social care for adult asylum seekers reached almost £134 million in 2024-25, up from £50.6 million five years earlier. Although that figure is below a peak of nearly £191 million in 2022-23, it remains far higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Spending on asylum-seeking children is significantly higher. Councils now spend more than £600 million a year on social care for these children, including £287.2 million for those living with their families and £322.6 million for unaccompanied children.

Prior to 2022-23, councils did not separately record spending on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, with costs absorbed into wider children's social care budgets. Since the category was introduced, spending on unaccompanied children has risen by 32 %.

The TaxPayers' Alliance said asylum-related social care is distinct from Home Office asylum support, such as hotels, dispersal accommodation, meals and subsistence payments. Council-funded support can include interpretation and language services, as well as help accessing healthcare, housing, education and legal advice. Where asylum-seeking children enter care, councils must also cover accommodation and care placement costs.

Kent was the highest-spending authority on asylum seeker social care in 2024-25, with costs of £41.6 million. Hampshire followed with £23.9 million, while Manchester spent £23.2 million.

Kent also recorded the largest increase since 2019-20, with spending quadrupling from £9.9 million to £41.6 million. Hampshire's costs rose from zero to £23.9 million over the same period, while Surrey's spending surged from £1,243 to £22.6 million.

Overall, directly reported asylum-related social care spending has more than doubled in real terms since 2019-20. Total expenditure rose from £299 million to £744 million in 2024-25, a real-terms increase of 148 %.

Much of the growth followed 2021-22, driven by sharp rises in adult social care costs and the introduction of a separate category for unaccompanied children.

Adult asylum seeker support alone rose by 165 % in real terms between 2019-20 and 2024-25, while spending on unaccompanied children has become the single largest component of asylum-related social care.

Spending is heavily concentrated among a small number of councils, with the top ten authorities accounting for 27 % of the total.

Per-household costs vary widely, ranging from £400 in the City of London to £133 in Islington, compared with a national average of £34.

Anne Strickland, a researcher at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "The escalating costs of providing social care for asylum seekers represents yet another ticking time bomb in town hall budgets, with local residents suffering the consequences.

"Taxpayers have watched on with dismay at the failure of successive governments to get a grip on this issue, knowing that they will inevitably end up picking up the tab.

"With councils essentially helpless in the face of this ongoing crisis, it's imperative that Whitehall urgently finds a way to stop the migration crisis."

A government spokesperson said: "We don't recognise these figures. This government has reduced asylum support costs by nearly a billion since the general election and the Home Secretary is taking tough action to fix our broken immigration system - removing incentives that draw people here illegally, scaling up removals, and revoking the legal duty to provide asylum-seeker support.

"The government is overhauling the broken funding system we inherited and has made almost £78 billion available to councils next year so that the most deprived communities benefit."