Asylum hotels latest: Labour in turmoil with more councils eyeing legal action after Epping site shut

The Independent’s data correspondent Alicja Hagopian reports:

Despite criticism, the government is housing fewer asylum seekers in hotel accommodation, latest figures show.

Some 32,000 asylum seekers were held in hotels earlier this year, according the Migration Observatory.

This is far from the peak of 56,000 in the third quarter of 2023, under the Conservative government.

Sir Keir Starmer faces a slew of legal challenges over the government’s use of asylum hotels after a council was granted a temporary injunction blocking migrants from being housed there.

After Epping Forest District Council won an interim High Court injunction to stop asylum seekers being housed at The Bell Hotel, Labour is now bracing for dozens of local authorities to challenge the use of asylum hotels in their areas on similar grounds.

Home Office lawyers have warned that the decision could “substantially impact” the government’s use of the accommodation.

The Independent’s social affairs correspondent Holly Bancroft reports:

The Home Office have warned that Epping Forest council’s hotel injunction will lead to similar applications made elsewhere “aggravating the pressures on the asylum estate” – and so far several councils have announced their intention to challenge hotels in their area.

But how will this work in practice?

The interim injunction granted to Epping council rested on the fact that the owners of The Bell Hotel had not made a planning application to change the use of the hotel when they started housing asylum seekers there. The council successfully argued that the site was essentially no longer a hotel, and therefore it was likely there was a breach of the planning process.

According to court documents, the hotel’s owners had been advised by the Home Office that “in the government’s opinion the hotel is contracted on exclusive use terms as a hotel, not a hostel, and so they do not support a change of use application”. In other words, Home Office officials apparently advised it was still in use as a hotel and so a planning application wasn’t necessary.

A judge has now ruled that there is a strong argument against this. If other councils want to follow in Epping’s footsteps they will have to be in the same position e.g. there is an asylum hotel in their area that has not applied for a change of use.

In the case of Conservative-led Broxbourne council, councillors believe this is the case for a hotel in the town of Cheshunt.

The chaos facing Sir Keir Starmer comes after Epping Forest District Council won an interim High Court injunction to stop asylum seekers being housed at The Bell Hotel.

The council successfully argued the site had become a “feeding ground for unrest” in recent weeks after a series of violent protests resulted in multiple arrests and saw police officers injured.