The Home Office is pressing ahead with plans to house thousands of asylum seekers in former military barracks, aiming to significantly reduce reliance on hotel accommodation.
This initiative comes ahead of new immigration reforms being introduced to Parliament next week.
Planning permission has been requested for Ministry of Defence sites in Bicester, Oxfordshire; Barnham, Suffolk; and Linton-on-Ouse, North Yorkshire, with a view to accommodating 3,750 asylum seekers, according to the department.
Notably, the Home Office appears to be reviving its controversial proposal for the disused RAF base near York, a plan to house up to 1,500 asylum seekers that was abandoned in 2022 following fierce local opposition and a council legal challenge.
Furthermore, the government intends to extend the use of existing facilities at Crowborough, East Sussex, until 2030, and Wethersfield, Essex, beyond 2027.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party has committed to ending the use of asylum hotels should they win the next general election.
The number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels has fallen to its lowest level since data was first reported in 2022, according to Home Office figures published last month.
There were 20,885 people staying in such accommodation while they were awaiting a decision on their asylum claims at the end of March, down 35% year-on-year from 32,326.
The total had climbed as high as 56,018 at the end of September 2023.
The issue of people being housed in hotels came to the fore last year with protests outside some sites.
On Thursday, the Home Office said 20 more hotels have now been closed.
They are: Dayz Away Lodge, Dudley, Black Country; Holiday Inn Ashford Central, Ashford, Kent; Best Western Atlantic, Chelmsford, Essex; The Cisswood, Horsham, Sussex; The Collection Hotel, Birmingham, West Midlands; Adagio, Leicester, East Midlands; Norwich Hotel, Norwich, Norfolk; Allerton Court, Northallerton, North Yorkshire; Mercure George, Reading, Berkshire; TLK Apartments, Bromley, Greater London; Best Western Stoke – Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire; The Granby (1 The Hill), Gravesham, Kent; Hampton by Hilton, Bristol; Delta Hotel Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Hertfordshire; Episode Leamington, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire; Oxford Witney Hotel, Oxford, Oxfordshire; Shambrook, Bedford, Bedfordshire; Bell hotel, Epping, Essex; OYO Evesham hotel, Evesham, Worcestershire; Best Western, Wembley, London.
Border security and asylum minister Alex Norris said: ”We promised to close every asylum hotel and hand them back to communities, and that is exactly what we are doing.
“Twenty more hotels have closed, and hotel numbers have more than halved since their peak. Instead, we’re moving asylum seekers into ex-military sites that are a far cry from the hotels the last Government left us with.
“This is a system being brought back under control – and we will not stop until the job is done.”#
The Refugee Council’s Imran Hussain said: “Moving refugees from unsuitable hotels to unsuitable former military sites is storing up problems for the next prime minister by repeating policies that failed in the recent past. It would be wise to rethink this approach.”
