A council at the centre of a legal case to block a hotel from housing asylum seekers was among the top 10 UK local authorities which saw the biggest rise in numbers staying in this kind of accommodation in recent months.
Epping Forest District Council in Essex went from housing 28 asylum seekers in hotels in its area in March this year, to 199 by the end of June.
The latest data breakdown, published by the Home Office on Thursday, comes two days after the council secured a High Court temporary injunction blocking the use of Epping’s Bell Hotel as accommodation for asylum seekers on planning grounds.
The legal case followed protests and counter-protests outside the Bell Hotel.
There were 124 local authorities across the UK housing asylum seekers in hotels at the end of June, according to the Home Office data.
This is around a third of all UK authorities.
The Home Office has a legal obligation to provide accommodation to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute and, when there is not enough housing, can move people to alternatives such as hotels and large sites, like former military bases.
The latest figures show that Manchester City Council was the local authority with the biggest numerical jump in people staying in hotels, from 874 at the end of March to 1,158 at the end of June.
This was followed by Birmingham City Council, which rose from 1,018 to 1,226 over the same period.
Both Warwick District Council and West Northamptonshire Council followed, seeing rises of 197 over the three-month period.
The former went from housing 168 asylum seekers in hotels to 365, while the latter saw a rise from 201 to 398.
Blackpool Borough Council had the same numerical rise as Epping Forest, both increasing by 171 people between March and June.
But the overall numbers for Blackpool are higher – housing 389 asylum seekers in hotels at the end of June, up from 218 at the end of March.
Protests have also been held outside the Britannia International Hotel in London’s Canary Wharf amid reports it was set to be used to offer temporary accommodation for asylum seekers.
The latest data showed that while there were 319 asylum seekers being housed in hotels in that local authority of Tower Hamlets, there were none at the end of June there.
Last month, there was a protest outside a hotel reportedly housing migrants in Bowthorpe near Norwich.
The number of asylum seekers being housed in hotels in the Norwich City Council area rose by 46 between the end of March and the end of June, from 161 to 207.
