Councils mount legal action blocking Home Office plans to house asylum seekers in local hotels

Three more local authorities have pursued injunctions to prevent hotels in their area being used to house asylum seekers, blocking the Government's efforts to find accommodation amid reports that its Manston processing centre is at almost double capacity.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Ipswich Council, and Stoke-on-Trent City Council all obtained temporary injunctions in October, following on from Great Yarmouth Borough Council, which secured an injunction a month earlier.

The Home Office has been moving asylum seekers into hotels to ease the load on its processing centres.

MPs heard in a committee meeting on Wednesday (26 October) that the Home Office processing centre in Manston in Kent is currently over capacity, with some 3,000 people being held there despite it being designed to hold just 1,600 people temporarily.

However, local authorities have pushed back against Home Office plans to house asylum seekers in local hotels in at least four cases.

Last week, East Riding and Ipswich became the latest councils to gain injunctions.

Commenting on the situation in East Riding, local Conservative MP, David Davis, said the council is "doing exactly the right thing" by launching legal action.

Writing on Twitter, Davis said the hotel is in "entirely the wrong location" and lacks appropriate amenities to support migrants.

The MP said he and the council had been resisting the proposals, but the Home Office moved ahead with the scheme "and, astonishingly, without any notification to local MPs", he said.

"This is frankly unacceptable and wholly inappropriate behaviour", he added.

East Riding Councillor Margaret Corless said a policy that allows the Home Office to contract with a hotel without any official notification or consultation with local residents "is thoroughly unacceptable".

Ipswich Council has meanwhile reported that its injunction prevents the use of all hotels within the borough as a "hostel by accommodating asylum seekers".

A spokesperson said: "This is the latest stage in the council's efforts to prevent the Government from turning the hotel into a hostel for asylum seekers. The council has always objected to the plan to do this and has made its position clear to the Home Office."

Ipswich's injunction follows the issuing of a temporary Stop Notice against a local hotel housing asylum seekers under planning legislation on 25 October.

East Riding and Ipswich both have hearings scheduled for 7 November.

Stoke On Trent secured an injunction in October, also citing a breach of planning rules, the BBC has reported.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The number of people arriving in the UK who seek asylum and require accommodation has reached record levels, placing unprecedented pressures on the asylum system.

“The Government is working with all local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland to provide more suitable accommodation for asylum seekers and to end the unacceptable use of hotels, with more than £21 million in grant funding already been provided to local authorities to help them respond to challenges in their area.”

The three injunctions follow an injunction sought by Great Yarmouth Borough Council, obtained in September. The council raised concerns that the Home Office had placed asylum seekers at a Great Yarmouth hotel without planning permission being sought beforehand.

Council leader Carl Smith said: "We do have a responsibility though to enforce planning laws and make sure that local residents and businesses all play by the same rules and are protected from unauthorised and inappropriate use of local properties."

Great Yarmouth served a planning contravention notice on the hotel, having earlier served a temporary stop notice.

The slew of injunctions comes as more than 38,000 asylum seekers have entered the UK on boats so far this year. Numbers rose considerably in August and September, with 8,631 arriving in August and 7,964 in September.

In April of this year, Hambleton District Council raised concerns over a plan to convert a disused RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse to an asylum reception centre. At the time, the Home Office said the centre would "help end our reliance on expensive hotels which are costing the taxpayer £4.7m a day.”

Last month, the Home Office abandoned the plans after Hambleton council threatened legal action claiming there had been a "lack of consultation" by the Government.

Adam Carey