Housing company chief accused of behaving like 'Pontius Pilate' over red doors for asylum seekers row

Stuart Monk, owner and chief executive of Jomast, was giving evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee about the controversial issue of asylum seekers in Teesside being housed behind red doors, which - some have claimed - singles them out for abuse and vandalism.

In heated exchanges, he told MPs: "We are going to take a more proactive approach. With the benefit of hindsight we have been very silly."

Jamie Howel, from Jomast, the company which owns properties provided for asylum seekers in Middlesbrough, changes the colours of doors from the distinctive red colour which marked them out from other residents

He said Jomast had owned some of the properties for 20 years and the doors had always been red, and when they started housing asylum seekers they stayed the same colour. It was not a deliberate policy, he said.

He appeared before the committee alongside two G4S executives, who subcontract the Home Office contract to Jomast in Teesside.

They were quizzed - but were unable to answer conclusively - about how Middlesbrough had the highest proportion of asylum seekers of anywhere in the country, exceeding Government targets of no more than one in 200 per head of population.

MPs and council leaders are calling for asylum seekers to be dispersed more fairly around the country, with the top ten concentrations being in areas - including Middlesbrough and Stockton - already struggling with unemployment deprivation.

Middlesbrough has around 900 asylum seekers in a population of 135,000.

Repainting is now being carried out on the red doors, which are on 58 per cent of Jomast's 300 asylum seeker properties in Middlesbrough.

Mr Monk - who has a fortune of about £175million, the committee heard - said the painting would be complete within two weeks.

He repeatedly told MPs that the company had no recorded complaints from asylum seekers about the red doors, and said he was "not aware" of any issues with the doors contributing to anti-social behaviour. He also repeated several times that he had emails from the Home Office praising the "exemplary" accommodation his company offered to refugees.

The asylum seeker contract, while making up about 25-30 per cent of Jomast's business, was "not very profitable", Mr Monk said.

Committee chair Keith Vaz told Mr Monk: "You are telling us, very Pontius Pilate-like, that you had nothing to do with this.

"I have to say we have found your evidence unsatisfactory. You have blamed ministers, The Times, G4S, the Home Office and the people of Middlesbrough."

Mr Monk denied being complacent or blaming the people of Middlesbrough.

Mr Vaz said the committee still needed to be convinced that the contract was being carried out properly and asked Mr Monk for more evidence.

MPs asked him to provide them with the emails of praise from the Home Office and to double-check if the red door issue had been raised with anyone in his company.

Immigration specialist Professor Thom Brooks said that the solution in Middlesbrough was not merely painting doors, and the town needed extra funding to deal with having more than the official 1:200 guideline ratio of asylum seekers to residents.

The Durham University professor of law and government, himself a migrant from the US, said: "They have still left Middlesbrough as the number one place in the country for dispersal of asylum seekers.

"I have seen nothing to say that there will be extra funding for the community to account for that."

Dr Pete Widlinski, chairman of the Tees Valley Sanctuary Group which aids refugees, said they were actually helping to breathe life into what were previously empty shops in the Parliament Road area of Middlesbrough as asylum seekers given leave to stay were starting businesses.