The short answer
If someone is saying £7.7m, that is not what the tender records show. The number behind the story is about £722,685 including VAT across two contracts, or about £602,237 before VAT. The contracts run into 2029 if fully extended.
The work is not a new benefit scheme. A mayor cannot create entitlement to Universal Credit or social housing. Entitlement is set by national law. The contracts provide guidance, lodging pathways and support so people do not fall out of Home Office accommodation into rough sleeping and emergency council services.
What the tenders actually say
Safe Transitions: New Community Guidance
Maximum tender value £307,691.66. It creates multilingual guidance, briefings and partnership work for newly granted refugees and other forced migrant communities. The stated aim is to reduce homelessness and pressure on public services.
Safe Transitions: Refugee Lodging Scheme
Maximum tender value £294,545.87. It matches newly recognised refugees with resident landlord placements and wraparound support for housing, employment, education, English language provision, healthcare and legal entitlements. Initial value is £77,270 to March 2027, with extensions possible to 2029.
Restricted Eligibility Support Service
This is the older GMCA homelessness prevention service for non UK nationals with restricted eligibility for public funds. GMCA's own evaluation says it worked mainly with people already experiencing homelessness and found savings to local government. That matters because rough sleeping is not free. It is just paid for later, through emergency accommodation, health, policing and crisis services.
The distinction that matters
The programme draws a hard line between three categories.
First, people claiming asylum. They should be in domestic processing centres, with decisions made in weeks, not scattered through hotels and private contracts for years.
Second, refused cases. They should be removed through a returns system that works, with tribunal capacity and country agreements designed before the announcement, not after it.
Third, people granted asylum. Once refugee status is granted, the law says they are here legally. The public interest then is transition into work, stable housing and ordinary contribution as quickly as possible. Leaving them homeless does not make the border stronger. It makes the local state weaker.
What Burnham should say
He should not defend every migration support contract as though voters are unreasonable for asking. He should say the system is broken because national government leaves local authorities managing the human and financial consequences of Home Office delay.
He should also be explicit that he does not support immediate access to benefits for every new arrival. The Guardian reported on 28 May 2026 that Burnham has stepped back from previous calls to abolish no recourse to public funds. That is the right direction. Control and compassion only work if both words mean something.
The programme position
Stop paying private operators to manage delay. Process claims in ten weeks. Remove refused cases. Move recognised refugees quickly out of Home Office limbo and into work, housing and ordinary civic life. Do not confuse transition support after legal status is granted with open access to welfare for anyone who arrives.
The current system pays billions because it refuses to decide. The programme spends on decisions, tribunals and returns first. That is how you reduce both cost and chaos.
Read the immigration section Read the asylum hotels response