This is the unlikely headquarters of the booming business empire masterminded by Graham King – Britain’s first asylum billionaire.
Hidden away on an industrial estate in Essex, few could imagine the fabulous riches being generated inside the unprepossessing office building with a roof made of corrugated iron.
At a time when a record number of firms are going bust or facing financial crisis amid soaring costs and taxes, Mr King’s operation raked in more than £1.7billion over 12 months according to latest published figures.
Its outrageous success has seen the former caravan park boss dubbed the ‘Asylum King’ amass a personal fortune estimated at £1.015 billion – all funded by the taxpayer.
Last week, as Mr King celebrated his 58th birthday, it emerged the tycoon has enjoyed a 35 per cent jump in his wealth in the past year, making him one of the Sunday Times Rich List’s new billionaires.
He is 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.
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.
While official reports have criticised failings in how his outsourcing organisation houses migrants, the cash continued to flood in allowing Mr King to enjoy a jet set lifestyle – patronising some of the world’s top hotels and dining at Michelin-starred restaurants.
The unassuming industrial estate in Rayleigh, Essex, where Britain’s first asylum billionaire – Graham King – runs his booming business empire from
Clearsprings’ boss Mr King (pictured on holiday) is ranked 154th in the 2025 list of the UK’s wealthiest people
Mr King spends a lot of his time on luxurious holidays with his Latvian girlfriend Lolita Lace (pictured together riding horses on the beach)
Asylum seekers carry their belongings out of a London hotel operated by Clearsprings in January 2024 after it told them their rooms were being freed up
Last year MailOnline highlighted how he had used his fortune to rebrand himself as a ‘gentleman racing driver’ while whisking glamorous Latvian girlfriend Lolita Lace on a string of romantic holidays.
Mr King previously posted a string of photos on TripAdvisor with his long-term partner who celebrates her own landmark birthday this month when she turns 40.
As of last year he claimed to have travelled 245,029 miles and visited 276 cities around the world.
So just how did the entrepreneur – who had previously been involved in a string of family businesses – become wealthy beyond his wildest dreams?
The answer, in some ways, is straightforward as business has never been so good.
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 38,000 asylum seekers being housed in 222 hotels with a further 66,000 people 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.
Clearsprings is the largest recipient by far after being awarded two 10-year contracts in 2019 which are funded from the foreign aid budget.
Asylum accommodation – including hotels – will cost the taxpayer £15billion over 10 years. Clearsprings is now set to be paid £7.3billion over the 10 years from 2019 to 2029
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 contracts, to provide accommodation, transport, food and welfare services in the south of England and Wales, were originally valued at £1 billion by the Home Office which now reportedly estimates their worth at £7.3 billion.
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.
MailOnline can reveal 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 £117million – up from nearly £75million 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 per cent and 50 per cent of it, were paid dividends of £90million during the year, compared with £57million in the previous 12 months, according to the accounts.
Mr King pictured with his daughter Catalina
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.
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 per cent 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, MailOnline can reveal.
Clearsprings owns 16 properties in Wales and the north west largely made up of two up two down Coronation Street-style homes.
The properties were bought for a total of £1,428,450 and are now worth an estimated £2.325 million, according to online valuations.
One home in Oldham bought in 2003 for £27,500 would now fetch an estimated £116,000.
Another home in Manchester bought in the same year for £33,000 is thought to be worth £171,000.
In 2007 and 2008 Mr King’s firm splashed out on 14 properties in Swansea ranging in price from £73,000 to £123,000 according to public documents. All still have mortgages.
The management company also owns a further unnamed property which is worth £3.555 million, having risen by £637,000 in value over the last year.
Mr King grew up in Canvey Island after his father Jack, who had started life as a shed salesman in Romford, moved the family there and bought a failing caravan park from the local council.
He turned it into a mobile home business and Graham and his older brother Jeff spent years working for Jack at the caravan park, called Kings Park, taking over when he retired.
It was sold in 2007 for £32 million.
Mr King, 57, (right) whose firm Clearsprings made nearly £120million in profit last year, grew close to Latvian businesswoman Miss Lace, 39, (left) after splitting with his wife Karin, 60
Ms Lace, who acted as team director for the business, celebrates her own landmark birthday this month when she turns 40
The couple now divide their time between their £2.5 million apartment Mayfair and a place in Monaco
Hidden away on this industrial estate in Rayleigh, Essex, few could imagine the fabulous riches being generated inside the unprepossessing office building by Clearsprings
Mr King has a portfolio of 14 properties in Swansea (one of the houses pictured) but his immigrant tenants have never heard of him
The family also owned a taxi company, a car dealership and nightclubs that hosted performers including Shirley Bassey and Tommy Cooper.
At one stage the brothers branched out to create an under-18s disco in a cinema in Leigh, Essex, but complaints about teenagers vandalising cars, and urinating and vomiting in the street led to the council withdrawing its entertainment licence.
Clearsprings was established in 1999 and the following year won one of the initial contracts handed out after Tony Blair and his New Labour government began dispersing asylum seekers around Britain and outsourcing accommodation to private firms.
In the following years, Mr King won a succession of lucrative Home Office contracts, gradually seeing off numerous competitors to become one of just three key accommodation providers across the country.
Clearsprings makes the majority of its profits from managing asylum hotels for others, rather than owning them outright.
Accommodation includes the Napier Barracks site in Kent and the former RAF Wethersfield base in Essex, as well as an undisclosed number of hotels.
Mr King has previously faced accusations of providing unfit accommodation with complaints made about alleged bug and rodent infestations, cramped conditions, water leaking through ceilings, limited heating and electricity, and a lack of drinking water.
In 2021, inspectors described Napier Barracks and Penally Camp in Pembrokeshire, as filthy and having ‘decrepit’, ‘impoverished’ and ‘run down’ conditions.
Of the 1,500 complaints the Home Office received about the state of asylum hotels in 2023, the majority (901) were linked to Clearsprings Ready Homes, according to data obtained via freedom of information laws.
The revelation coincided with a protest in London by more than 70 asylum seekers, including children, who slept on the street because they had allegedly been told by Clearsprings that they would have to share single rooms, some without beds, between four people.
In March this year the Home Office ordered Clearsprings to end arrangements with one of its subcontractors, Stay Belvedere Hotels Ltd, due to ‘poor performance and behaviour’.
Inspectors also reported that as part of their audit of the Home Office’s 2023-24 financial statements, they reviewed a selection of Clearsprings monthly invoices for hotels and the Home Office was ‘not able to provide a complete evidence trail to support the amounts being charged that were higher than the original agreement’.
They estimated that £58 million was ‘potentially unsupported for that financial year’ and recommended the Home Office could improve ‘invoicing controls … to reduce the risk of overpayment’.
Shortly after signing his first Government contract in 2000, Mr King left Canvey Island.
Earlier this week Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (pictured) announced his government’s Immigration White Paper
Last year saw net migration of 728,000 with more than 108,000 asylum claims – the highest number since records began. Pictured: People believed to be migrants leaving by bus in Dover, Kent
A group of people believed to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, earlier this week after crossing the Channel
He moved to a 60-acre listed farmhouse in Chappel, a village near Colchester, with his Austrian-born wife Carin and their two young children, who were both educated at Felsted school where boarding fees range up to £46,755 a year.
He and Carin split years ago and Mr King embarked on a new adventure after meeting Lolita.
The couple now divide their time between Mayfair and Monaco, while travelling the world including one trip to the Caribbean where they rode horses in the sea and skiing in the French Alps.
Lolita – known as ‘Lolo’ – has also acted as team director as Mr King pursued his passion for fast cars by taking part in Porsche Sprint Challenge events around Europe
Last May, an Instagram post showed him on the podium spraying champagne as he celebrated victory in a race in the Netherlands.
It all seems a world away from the drab surroundings of company HQ which sits next door to a gym and opposite a takeaway snack kiosk on an industrial park beside a busy dual carriageway near Southend-on-Sea.
Mr King is rarely seen at the premises and staff were in no mood to discuss matters when they refused to open the door to a MailOnline reporter who visited the office this week, and hung up on the intercom when he introduced himself.
An employee of another business nearby said: ‘We all know how Clearsprings make their money. It is a bit galling to think that it all comes from the taxpayer.
‘I think I have seen Graham King make an occasional visit. But it looks like a lot of his staff now work from home because there are not that many people there.
‘Around a year or so ago there was a demonstration outside with people waving placards, and protesting about the standard of accommodation provided for migrants.’
The 14 properties owned by Mr King in Swansea cost a value of more than £1million
Rich list billionaire Graham King has a portfolio of 14 properties in Swansea but his immigrant tenants have never heard of him.
The terraced houses all look a bit run down and in need of some TLC but together their value adds up to well over £1m.( £1,131,450).
They are managed by King’s company Clearsprings Ready Homes which has been providing accommodation services to the Home Office for 25 years.
Neighbours of the five properties visited by Mail Online said there was a steady stream of occupants and no one lived there for long.
One neighbour complained of loud music coming from the end of terrace property in Robert Street, Manseltown, Swansea, and men smoking weed in the street outside.
The mum-of-two said: ‘I’ve complained directly to the men who live there but it still goes on.
‘I understand they are asylum seekers and need somewhere to live but they should respect the community they are living in.
‘I can hear loud music and shouting at 2am and they know I have two young children living here.
‘I don’t know who the landlord is so it’s not possible to complain to them.’
Neighbours of a terraced property in Courtney Street, also in Manseltown, said there were only ever women occupants ‘coming and going, carrying suitcases’.
A street resident said: ‘The curtains are always drawn but I know it’s only women living there and they are not there for long before a new lot arrive.
‘It’s been a house of multi occupation for getting on for 20 years, I’ve no idea who the landlord is.’
The 14 properties in Swansea are managed by Mr King’s company Clearsprings Ready Homes which has been providing accommodation services to the Home Office for 25 years
Many of King’s tenants are on the books of Migrant Help, a UK charity that supported 115,122 asylum seekers last year.
The Jegatheepom family, from Sri Lanka, have been living in one of King’s properties in Clare Street, Swansea, for the last two years but have never heard of the property billionaire.
Shopworker Pathmamathan Jegatheepom, 40, a father-of-two, said: ‘There is a noticeboard at the entrance that says Clearsprings Ready Homes are the owners but I don’t know anything about them.
‘We deal with Migrant Help, someone comes to visit us every month
They are very nice, very good. I think he’s the housing manager.’
A 44-year-old mother-of-three, a refugee from Tanzania, living in a three-bedroomed terrace in Carmarthen Road said she did not know the identity of the landlord.
The single parent said she was not allowed to work because of immigration rules and had been given the property to live in through Migrant Help and pointed to a notice one the wall with a qr code to the charity’s website.
The woman, who didn’t want to be named and said she was ‘scared’, said she had never heard of Graham King.
