Labour-run
councils consider legal challenges to close asylum hotels
Injunction
to remove people from Essex hotel leads to government considering other housing
options
Rajeev
Syal and Vikram Dodd
Wed 20
Aug 2025 22.15 BST
Labour-run
councils are considering legal challenges to close hotels housing asylum
seekers after a landmark ruling prompted officials to consider increasing the
use of former military sites as emergency accommodation.
Wirral
and Tamworth councils said they are exploring high court injunctions to remove
claimants after the Conservative-run authority in Epping Forest won a temporary
high court injunction to remove people from the Bell Hotel.
The
developments come after the Home Office minister, Dan Jarvis, said the
government is looking at alternative options if there is a flurry of successful
challenges from councils.
Yvette
Cooper, the home secretary, is determinedto stick to her plan after the Epping
ruling and its consequences, a source said.
“We have
a plan and we’re sticking to it to close asylum hotels by the end of the
parliament. This is one narrow court judgment that happened yesterday. We’re
not being knocked off course, this is our manifesto commitment,” the source
said.
Ministers
are reluctant to disclose the details about alternatives to asylum hotels
because of concerns that it could be used as a recruitment tool for the far
right, a government source said.
Cllr
Paula Basnett, the leader of Wirral council whose boundaries include the
Wallasey constituency of the immigration minister Angela Eagle, said the
council is actively considering “all options” to close a local hotel.
She
added: “Like many other local authorities, we have concerns about the Home
Office’s practice of placing asylum seekers in hotels without consultation or
regard to local planning requirements.
“We are
actively considering all options available to us to ensure that any use of
hotels or other premises in Wirral is lawful and does not ride roughshod over
planning regulations or the wishes of our communities.
“Wirral
has always been proud of its record in supporting families and those fleeing
conflict, but it is unacceptable for the government to impose unsuitable,
short-term arrangements that disrupt communities and bypass local
decision-making.
“If
necessary, we will not hesitate to challenge such decisions in order to protect
both residents and those seeking refuge.”
Labour
councillor Carol Dean, leader of Tamworth borough council, said the council had
explored similar legal avenues in 2022 when the Home Office first started using
a local hotel, but did not end up pursuing them.
“The
situation at Epping Forest represents a potentially important legal precedent,
and we are carefully assessing what this might mean for our circumstances here
in Tamworth.
“We fully
recognise the UK government has a statutory duty to accommodate people seeking
asylum. However, we have consistently maintained that the prolonged use of
hotel accommodation may not represent the best approach,” she added.
Tory
leader Kemi Badenoch has written to all Conservative council leaders
encouraging them to launch legal action to close hotels housing people claiming
asylum.
“In the
case of Epping, this challenge was brought under the Town and Country Planning
Act 1990. I am encouraging Conservative council leaders to take the same steps
if your legal advice supports it,” she said.
Conservative-run
Broxbourne council in Hertfordshire has said it was taking legal advice “as a
matter of urgency”, while Tory-run East Lindsey district council in
Lincolnshire said officers are investigating and “will take appropriate
action”.
West
Northamptonshire council and Staffordshire county council, which are led by
Reform UK, also said the authorities would look at the options available after
the high court ruling.
On
Tuesday, Reform UK leaders Nigel Farage and Richard Tice indicated that
councils run by the party will consider their own legal challenges.
However,
a number of these do not have responsibility for planning permission, which may
limit their ability to launch legal bids.
Other
authorities have ruled out legal action, with the leader of Labour-run
Newcastle city council saying she was “confident” the council could end the use
of hotels without going to court.
Karen
Kilgour said: “We recognise that people seeking asylum include families, women,
and children, many of whom have faced unimaginable trauma.
“Newcastle
has a proud history of offering sanctuary, and we stand ready to play our part
– but it must be done in a way that works for our city and supports the dignity
and wellbeing of those who come here.”
Mr
Justice Eyre granted the Epping injunction after hearing the local council’s
complaints that planning law had been breached in changing the site’s use.
Epping
district council also cited disruption caused by the protests and concerns for
the safety of the asylum seekers themselves.
The hotel
has been at the centre of violent far-right protests since an asylum seeker was
charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu
has denied charges against him and is due to stand trial later this month.
Since
2020, there has been greater reliance on hotels to house asylum seekers, with
32,345 being housed temporarily in England and Wales at the end of March this
year. Labour has promised to end the use of hotels by 2029 by cutting small
boat crossings and building new accommodation.
Asked on
Times Radio about possible housing options for anyone removed from hotels,
Jarvis said on Wednesday that the government is “looking at a range of
different contingency options”.
These are
understood to include placing people removed from hotels in Wethersfield air
base in Essex and Napier Barracks in Kent, the two most high-profile disused
military bases used to house refugees.
Figures
from the end of March show that almost a third of asylum seekers that receive
government support were housed in “contingency accommodation” – flats and
houses.
The
statistics, from the National Audit Office and other official sources, says
this amounts to about 32, 300 people, a reduction of 42% compared with its 2023
peak.
Despite
ministers coming under heavy criticism for the conditions refugees have been
forced to endure, this Labour government is set to expand the use of both
bases.
It comes
after the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, pledged to stop using taxpayer-funded
hotels by 2029 in her Spending Review, in a drive to save £1bn. The Home Office
aims to achieve this by moving refugees into cheaper sites.
In April
of last year, Cooper said Wethersfield is neither “a sustainable solution” nor
provides “value for money for the taxpayer”. But an internal Home Office memo
dated 24 July, seen by the Guardian, shows there are plans to put people in
Wethersfield despite it being at maximum capacity.
It
states: “While the site’s regular cap is 800 an additional 445 bed spaces may
be used temporarily during peak demand. There are no plans to exceed 1,245.”
In March,
the high court found the previous government’s use of Wethersfield to be
unlawful after three men likened their conditions to a prison.
Napier
Barracks, which was due to be handed back to the Ministry of Defence in
September, will instead continue to house migrants into 2026.
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