At least four councils – some in top tourist areas – have taken legal action after the Home Office booked hotels for the migrants. Tory MPs have also raised concerns about the diaspora, arguing that some councils must take in a disproportionate number of migrants. It comes as the Home Office tries to ease the overcrowding crisis at the Manston asylum processing center in Kent, where 4,000 migrants were held at the weekend in a space designed for just 1,600. The overcrowding has led to claims that the Home Office is acting illegally because of its legal responsibility to process migrants within 24 hours. Almost 40,000 migrants have crossed the Channel this year, twice as many as last year, with ministers expecting at least 50,000 by the end of 2022. In Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, the local council’s chief executive Sheila Oxtoby wrote to Home Office officials after they closed the whole of “a very successful, sustainable hotel” popular with holidaymakers. But it was ignored and 72 migrants moved on. Great Yarmouth Council then took legal action and won an interim injunction preventing a second hotel, the Embassy, from taking in more asylum seekers.
“Complete lack of commitment”
Ms Oxtoby said they had taken legal action after the Home Office failed to offer proper consultation or engagement. “We believe that two properties that operate as successful hotels in a prime tourist area have been selected to host asylum seekers. That is what we object to as well as the process by which they have been selected,” he said. “There has been a complete lack of engagement and consultation with us as a local council and they have not used our local knowledge to find the most suitable accommodation. The accommodations they have chosen in a privileged tourist area and do not have permission to change their use from the urban planning authority, and that is why we disagree.” Ipswich Borough Council was granted an interim injunction last week after the Home Office planned to house 200 asylum seekers in a four-star hotel. The Labor council and local Tory MP Tom Hunt joined forces to fight for the court order against the Novotel hotel. Mr Hunt said: “This is the most pressing issue in my inbox. Hosting people who have come here illegally in expensive hotels in the city center is not something I am going to support. Businesses are very worried about it as it was often used by them for work. Now it has lost that purpose.” The 88-room North Stafford Hotel in Stoke-on-Trent has also been prevented from housing migrants after council bosses secured an interim injunction. Stoke City Council won the judgment against Britannia Hotels this month and the case is expected to return to the High Court on Wednesday.
‘Attack’
Tory, Labor and independent councilors came together to criticize the planned use of the hotel, saying: “This is a misuse of the hotel, which has no permits for this use and does not promote inclusion. It’s an outrage that the government tells us who to house where.” The East Riding of Yorkshire council won an interim High Court injunction against the Humber View Hotel after complaints that its remote location made it unsuitable. The plan came about when couples due to marry at the hotel, near North Ferriby, west of Hull, were told their bookings had been cancelled. The order prevents plans to host asylum seekers until a hearing on November 7. It bans LGH Management and four other companies from using the hotel or any other in the East Riding to house asylum seekers. A hotel four miles from Rishi Sunak’s constituency home could also be used to house Channel migrants over the winter as part of the Home Office’s emergency plans. The Home Office is booking Allerton Court Hotel, a three-star hotel with 44 en-suite rooms in the quiet Northallerton town of North Yorkshire, which has a population of 16,000.
“urgent concerns”
The hotel is a ten-minute drive from Sunak’s home, a Grade II listed Georgian mansion, in his constituency of Richmond. The Home Office is close to signing a contract to book the hotel despite concerns raised by the local council about a lack of healthcare and other support services for asylum seekers. A spokesman for the Local Government Association, which represents councils, said: “We are raising increasingly urgent concerns with the Home Office about councils using hotels for asylum seekers without sufficient time to consult or even sometimes inform the local council of in advance. “Councils understand the pressures on the system but it is vital that they are notified.” The government spends £6.8m a day on hotels for migrants. The Home Office said asylum-seeker arrivals were at record levels but admitted using hotels to house them was “unacceptable” and a “short-term solution”.
