MORE than £900,000 will be spent on supporting asylum seekers in Swindon this year.

This means the annual cost faced by Swindon Council has soared seven-fold since 1998, according to new figures.

The council will pay out £912,000 on asylum seekers this year a 647 per cent hike on 1998's £122,000.

This latest round of expenditure pumps the cost to the council since 1998/1999 up to £4.978 million, an average of £711,000 annually on asylum seekers.

According to the Home Office, the biggest yearly spend took place in 2000/2001, when £925,000 was paid out.

Nationally, the total cost incurred by local authorities from asylum seekers has gone from £192 million in 1998/9 to £397 million in 2004/5.

The Home Office is responsible for allocating asylum seekers to local authorities, and Government grants are then given to each council to help it cover the costs.

Statistics from the latest census show 95.2 per cent of the Swindon population is white. This figure rises to 98.4 per cent when looking at Wiltshire as a whole.

The greatest financial costs were borne by London councils.

Lambeth has consistently paid more than £20 million a year.

But other authorities pay far less and some, including Durham, Hertfordshire and

and Northumberland, will spend nothing on asylum seekers this year.

The details were released in answer to a Parliamentary written question from Shadow Home Secretary David Davis.

He blamed the Government for the spiralling costs and said the Prime Minister had failed to control asylum.

He said: "Again we can see the cost of Labour's asylum shambles.

"While police are warning they cannot make ends meet without rises in council tax, taxpayers will be angered to see they have forked out £3 billion in seven years to support our extremely chaotic asylum system.

"Tony Blair promised Britain would have firm control but he's let people down."

A spokesman for the Home Office said all councils received government grants to cover the cost of asylum seekers lifting the burden from local taxpayers.

He also said grants are available to local authorities if they are hit by unexpected costs.