The Home Office is seeking planning permission to use three additional military sites for housing asylum seekers as part of its drive to close hotels. The sites are MOD Bicester in Oxfordshire, RAF Barnham in Suffolk, and RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire. The government also wants to extend the use of existing asylum sites in Crowborough until 2030 and Wethersfield beyond 2027.
Government defends progress on migration
Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended the government's record on migration on Thursday, stating that Labour had made "really important progress" since coming to power. He said: "In the first two years of this government, we have made really important progress on immigration. One of the tests of an outgoing Prime Minister is whether you leave the country in a better state than what you found it, and I am leaving it in a better state." Starmer highlighted that net migration had been reduced from nearly a million to about a fifth of that number, an over 80% reduction, and that Channel crossings had also decreased.
Hotel closures and asylum numbers
The Home Office confirmed that 20 more hotels will shut, bringing the total number of hotels in use down to around 170, from 400 in 2023. At the end of December, there were 30,657 asylum seekers living in hotels, down from a peak of 56,042 in 2023. Starmer pledged to close all remaining asylum hotels by 2029. 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."
Details of new military sites
MOD Bicester was previously earmarked for asylum accommodation under Tony Blair but was never used due to a fall in demand. RAF Barnham, formerly a storage site for nuclear weapons, has been rumoured to be under consideration after recent activity. RAF Linton-on-Ouse was set to be an asylum site under the Conservatives but was abandoned in 2022 after local opposition. Together, these three sites could house around 3,750 people.
Criticism from campaign groups
Kamena Dorling, Director of Policy at Helen Bamber Foundation, expressed outrage, saying: "We have repeatedly shown through clinical evidence that housing people in ex-military sites like RAF Wethersfield causes profound and long-lasting harm to their mental and physical health. These sites are extremely isolated, resemble prisons with barbed wire and surveillance and lack privacy." She warned that such conditions compound trauma for survivors of conflict, persecution, torture, and trafficking, leading to depression, suicidal ideation, and self-harm.
Upcoming legislation
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is set to publish new legislation next week, the Immigration and Asylum Bill, which will restrict how the European Convention on Human Rights can be used to prevent deportations and reform the Modern Slavery Act to clamp down on last-ditch claims. A new asylum tribunal process with tighter rules around appeals is also expected. Imran Hussain of the Refugee Council commented: "Rather than making appeals harder, the Government needs to be addressing why so many initial decisions are found to be flawed."
List of hotels closing
The 20 hotels being closed are: Dayz Away Lodge – Dudley, West Midlands; Holiday Inn Ashford Central – Ashford, Kent; Best Western Atlantic – Chelmsford, Essex; The Cisswood – Horsham, Sussex; The Collection Hotel – Edgbaston, Birmingham; 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.
