A minister has refused to stand by Labour’s pledge to end the use of asylum hotels by the next general election, expected in 2029.
Matthew Pennycook said the party “is determined” to stop their use as accommodation for migrants amid ongoing protests across the UK.
But he stopped short of guaranteeing their use will end, with groups including the Refugee Council warning the target is unachievable.
Asked by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether Labour “absolutely will” stick to its promise, the housing minister said: “We are determined to end hotel use within this parliament. Obviously that can’t happen overnight.
“We will, over the coming months, evidence the closure of them.
“We are looking at all options, whether it’s those large scale alternative locations, like military sites across the country, and eventually, to some extent, dispersal accommodation.
“Although that will be very basic accommodation, in some cases, HMOs, lower quality housing in the private rented sector, when we need to move to dispersal accommodation.”
Mr Pennycook also refused to say how much money is being spent ferrying migrants between hotels and to and from medical appointments after a BBC investigation uncovered some journeys costing hundreds of pounds.
Rachel Reeves in June pledged that the government will no longer house migrants in asylum hotels by 2029.
At the government’s spending review, she said hotels are costing “billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money” and “leaving people in limbo, shunting the cost of failure onto local communities”.
Ms Reeves told MPs that plans to cut the asylum backlog, hear more asylum appeal cases and return people to their home countries would save £1bn per year.
The former top civil servant in the Home Office has also cautioned ministers over the target, warning that “ups and downs” could throw it off course.
Protests have erupted across the country outside hotels housing asylum seekers, with Reform UK and the Conservatives calling for an immediate end to their use.
But figures last month revealed the number of asylum seekers in hotels had risen by eight per cent from a year earlier.
But while the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels was up eight per cent year-on-year, the numbers have been consistently falling since December last year. The number of people in hotels – 32,059 – is also significantly lower than the peak of over 56,000 under the Tory government in September 2023.
