Councils Could be Forced to Reopen Asylum Hotels to Cope With Homeless Immigrants

A group representing local authorities said Home Office plans to shut 50 hotels housing illegal arrivals will just shift the pressures on to councils.

A view of the scene outside the Comfort Inn hotel on Belgrave Road in Pimlico, central London, on June 2, 2023. James Manning/PA Wire

A leading local authority group has warned that some of the 50 hotels set to close its doors to illegal immigrants may have to be reopened by councils to cope with asylum pressures.

The Local Government Association (LGA) said the government has yet to offer any alternatives to house illegal immigrants, warning the plans will just leave more homeless.

Shaun Davies, chairman of the LGA, said councils were legally obliged to find somewhere to stay for the large numbers of immigrants presenting as homeless after leaving hotel accommodation when their asylum application was processed.

“We’ve got a housing shortage, we’ve got a huge demand on temporary accommodation, and we’ve got councils in financial strain,” Mr. Davies told the BBC on Wednesday.

While hotels were not a “long-term solution” for housing those who have entered the UK illegally, Mr. Davies said the question had to be, “If not those hotels, then where?”

“That’s the irony in this situation, that one part of the system might boast that they’re doing relatively well, but actually, that’s shunting the issue and the cost to local taxpayers,” he said.

The LGA chair—who is also a Labour councillor—made the comments in response to immigration minister Robert Jenrick’s announcement that 50 hotels housing immigrants will no longer be used by January.

Barge

Speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mr. Jenrick said the exiting of those housed in the hotels would begin in the coming days.

He said the plans are possible because of “the progress we’ve made to stop the boats”.

“One of the most damaging manifestations of this problem has been the use of hotels to meet our statutory obligations to house those who arrive illegally who would otherwise be destitute […] I can inform the House that today the Home Office wrote to local authorities and MPs to inform them that we will now be exiting the first asylum hotels, hotels in all four nations of the UK,” he said.

“The first 50 of these exits will begin in the coming days and will be complete by the end of January with more tranches to follow shortly, but we will not stop there.

“We will continue to deliver on our strategy to stop the boats, and we will be able to exit more hotels. And as we exit these hotels, we are putting in place dedicated resources to facilitate the orderly and effective management of this process and limit the impact on local communities.”

In March, the government introduced plans to house asylum seekers on disused military bases and barges in a bid to cut spending on hotels, which has hit £8 million a day.

That month, around 47,500 people were using hotel accommodation, according to the House of Commons Library.

Some migrants have been moved back on to the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, after the discovery of Legionella bacteria in its water supply led to an evacuation in August.

Mr. Jenrick said occupancy on the 500-person-capacity vessel had reached approximately 50 individuals on October 23.

The Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge arrives at Falmouth docks, Cornwall, to undergo inspection on May 9, 2023. Matt Keeble/PA Media

One Week’s Notice

Another government plan announced in April 2022, under which some asylum seekers would be sent to Rwanda, is currently held up in the courts, with a deportation flight yet to take off.

Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock accused Mr. Jenrick of having the “brass neck” to announce not that the government had cut the number of hotels, but that it “simply plans to, and by a paltry 12 percent.”

He also questioned whether the hotels selected for the first tranche of “exiting” are located in marginal seats, as some reports have previously suggested.

Speaking in the chamber, Labour MP Stella Creasy accused the Home Office of ejecting illegal immigrants from their temporary hotel accommodations with a week’s notice.

She told Mr. Jenrick that there is “no assistance” being provided to these people, leading them to resort to local homeless shelters.

The minister rejected her claims, saying the Home Office’s policy is to give 28 days’ notice, and highlighted that those granted asylum will have access to benefits and employment opportunities.

“Everybody who is granted asylum has access to the benefit system and can get a job,” he told MPs.

However, after putting her question to Mr. Jenrick, Ms. Creasy posted a picture on X, formerly known as Twitter, of a letter by the Home Office’s contractor Clearsprings Ready Homes, addressed to an immigrant housed in her constituency.

The letter, dated October 19, reads, “We have been advised by UKVI (UK Visas and Immigration) that your support is being terminated, and therefore, Ready Homes is issuing you with a formal notice to permanently vacate the Premises by 27/10/2023.”

The Walthamstow MP also wrote on X: “Minister challenged me to show receipts on the record. Here you go.”

Britain's Housing, Communities, and Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick arrives at 10 Downing Street in central London, UK, on March 17, 2020, Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images

Not Enough

In a lengthy statement released by the LGA on Wednesday, it said councils are already “increasingly concerned” over the numbers of those claiming asylum who are presenting as homeless, which it believes will increase following the closing of hotels.

“Given increased demand and the acute shortage of housing available across the country, it will make it extremely challenging for those leaving accommodation to find affordable, long-term accommodation and there needs to be a joint and funded approach nationally, regionally and locally to manage the move on from asylum accommodation and avoid risks of destitution and street homelessness throughout the winter,” an LGA spokesperson said.

The Refugee Council also warned that cutting the number of hotels could be a factor in what it described as a developing “homelessness crisis” among immigrants.

Chief executive Enver Solomon said: “The cost and chaos of an asylum backlog that has spiralled out of control is a result of gross Government failure, leaving people in limbo for years on end.

“In closing hotels we are now seeing a homelessness crisis developing with newly recognised refugees being given as little as seven days before they are evicted from accommodation.”

Among some of the first hotels to close its doors to illegal arrivals is one in Knowsley, which was the focus of disorder earlier this year.

A police van was set on fire and missiles were thrown at officers after a demonstration outside the accommodation, which Mr. Jenrick said, “highlights why this is not an appropriate form of accommodation.”

The immigration minister described the plans as a “milestone” but “not enough” and not a moment for “triumphalism.”

Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke, in whose Dover seat migrant boats frequently arrive, praised the government for making what she described as “immense efforts” to tackle the issue.

Some 26,501 people have been brought ashore after making the dangerous journey across the Channel since the start of 2023, which compares with more than 37,000 by this point last year.

Downing Street on Tuesday insisted that its policies were having an impact, and that a year-on-year drop in crossing figures was “not a function of the weather.”