Housing asylum seekers on a barge at Portland Port will "almost certainly" cost more than housing in hotels, according to a report.

A report from two Non-Governmental Organisations - One Life to Live and Reclaim the Seas, has estimated the cost of housing asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm, arriving at a minimal annual figure of around £18 million.

It has been reported that Corporate Travel Management, which will oversee operations on the barge, will receive £1.6 billion over two years to manage the mass-containment of asylum-seekers on an unknown number of vessels, including the Bibby Stockholm and an unknown number of hotels.

That contract alone adds 40 per cent to the current £2.044 billion annual cost of hotels.

The report states that at most, the barge option could save £4,694 on the daily hotel bill of £5.6 million of the current spend.

It also states that if the Home Office was to publish the full costings there may be no financial saving at all.

The Home Office has not released a detailed breakdown of the costs of the barge, however, officials have repeatedly stated that the use of barges was to "offer better value for the British taxpayer than expensive hotels".

However, Nicola David of One Life To Live has said she is "extremely confident" that the barge will in fact cost more than hotels, having worked on the report to estimate the cost of the Bibby Stockholm.

She said: "I am extremely confident. I worked on that report for over a month - talked to so many people, some secret sources, some FOIs, some just deep research, some comparing with models and contracts for other sites.

"As there are costs which exist but are currently unquantifiable, I've tried to be very fair and straight, and I've only quoted the costs and saving I can be pretty certain of.

"But there are loads of other costs, and by the time you add them in it will definitely go into the red and cost more than hotels.

"As I point out in the report, the £9.28 saving per head per day is an absolute maximum but is not at all realistic because of other the other costs which need adding in.

"Even saving the maximum £9.28 a day per head would simply move the £5.6bn daily hotel cost down from £5,600,000 to £5,595,306 – laughably negligible."