Asylum-seekers have been left in “unacceptably poor” housing by bungling private firms, campaigns and MPs said yesterday.

The public accounts committee slammed the Home Office for taking a “short-sightedly” hands-off approach after handing contracts to provide accommodation to 23,000 destitute asylum-seekers to G4S, Serco and Clearel in 2012.

MPs said that G4S and Serco had no experience of such work and weren’t up to the task.