Setting a precedent?

Let's hope so. Trouble is, where do they send/place them if taken out of the hotels ?

Could well be a precursor to setting a precedent if it goes from temporary to a permanent ruling.

I assume they will still need to house them somewhere.Possibly in houses, tower blocks, former student accommodation ?

At the end of July the Home Office notified Braintree District Council of temporary capacity increase plan for Wethersfield asylum centre. The Home Office has informed the council of its intention to increase the operational capacity of Wethersfield asylum centre from 800 to 1,245 temporarily.

My guess is that the Epping residents will go to Wethersfield, but even Wethersfield can't accommodate all the asylum seekers currently in hotels.

Rwanda?

JenniferEccles

Rwanda?

I'm not going to repeat all the humanitarian and legal objections to the Rwanda plan because they're available online and have often been quoted on GN.

The plan would only ever have transferred about 200 asylum seekers a year - at considerable cost. It was, in any case, a bilateral arrangement and the UK would have had to accept asylum seekers from Rwanda. IMO the Labour government would be foolish to resurrect that particular idea.

The courts ruling seems to be based on change of use from hotel, i.e., limited stay time, which breaks the planning law. The government now needs to review this and we need to wait and hear the conclusions they reach.

Not only is it a win for Epping, but Broxbourne Council (just along the road), is going to follow. I believe they use the Marriott hotel in Cheshunt.

What I want to know, is what will happen when we run out of spaces? Will Keir Starmer ask King Charles at one of the weekly meetings if Buckingham Palace can be used?

This is an interesting ruling, with significant possible ramifications.

These asylum seekers have to be housed somewhere. The anger about the financial cost and impact on surrounding areas has been increasing.
I do t know enough but, the Nightingale hospital buildings?
It’s easy to say stop the boats but difficult in practice

The Council Offices and several large office blocks in local towns are up for sale. Excellent location, near to town centre and the park; ideal housing for migrants. This is what they were planning to do with Waterlooville Shopping Centre.

Unfortunately, the last Government did so little processing of asylum seekers that this problem was bound to arise and bound to have no easy answer.

This government has speeded up the system and the returns. Do not expect a quick easy answer; their won't be one. Do expect the government to keep moving forward and to work with other countries. Government is the art of the possible, it is not necessarily "the art of the perfect" or "the art of the ideal." It often involves pragmatic compromise, balancing competing interests, and working within constraints, rather than achieving perfect or utopian outcomes.

Those who vote are adults and should have long outgrown the expectation of the wave of a magic wand!

Hopefully it will spur the government to get moving on the backlog of asylum applications or deport them.
Other countries like Australia have no problem in quickly deporting people who have no right or reason to be in their country. Whereas we put them up and give them money etc and treat them better than our own citizens who often have a greater genuine need and claim to housing and help.
I have no issue with genuine claimants but as the majority are young men - I can't understand why they are not fighting or working to make things better in their own homelands.
It is concerning though that the government is doing a lot of damage under the radar - Portsmouth council apparently had no idea that asylum seekers were being housed in HMOs despite them telling them they didn't have the capacity some time ago. The present government is fast losing credibility on a range of issues and this is just one of them.

Hordes, and I mean hordes, of single fighting age young men, dispersed amongst the population in HMO's?

No thanks.

They have already shown what little - if any - regard they have for women by abandoning their own kind to poverty, persecution and abuse,

Good point PoliticsNerd.
I smiled (😉) reading the DM earlier, referring to government policy to house ‘migrants’ in hotels. No reference to it being previous government policy as well, no reference to asylum seekers.
These people have to be housed. Many came here because their country of origin has historical links with the UK. English their second language. All these flag waving shouters must be frightening

Australia has a huge ocean surrounding it. I cannot be a comparator for the UK anc Europe swampy1961.

swampy1961 It was the previous government's policy to start housing asylum seekers in hotels. There are now fewer asylum seekers in hotels than there were a year ago and the policy is that there will be none by 2029.

growstuff

swampy1961 It was the previous government's policy to start housing asylum seekers in hotels. There are now fewer asylum seekers in hotels than there were a year ago and the policy is that there will be none by 2029.

There are increasing numbers of people arriving in boats - where are they being accommodated when they are removed from hotels?

LovesBach

growstuff

swampy1961 It was the previous government's policy to start housing asylum seekers in hotels. There are now fewer asylum seekers in hotels than there were a year ago and the policy is that there will be none by 2029.

There are increasing numbers of people arriving in boats - where are they being accommodated when they are removed from hotels?

They live mainly in so-called dispersal units, which could be flats, shared houses or former military accommodation. Stays in hotels are only supposed to be temporary until dispersal accommodation can be found. The Home Office has stated the number of hotels used has decreased from 395 in March 2023 to 220 in November 2024.

The number of people arriving has increased, but so has the number whose claims are being processed. In June 2024 there were 224,742 asylum seekers awaiting an initial decision, but by March 2025 there were 109,536. Deportations have increased.

I notice that Nigel Farage has called for more 'peaceful' protests around hotels used for asylum seekers. (Please correct me if I'm wrong!) This would be very frightening for those inside, not all of whom will be strong young men. It is a very great shame that intimidating tactics have won.

Deportation is the only answer.
32,000 immigrants residing in hotels which cost us a fortune and which local people, in the main, do not want.

I wonder if it would help if what were hotels (ie places run for the convenience and luxury of paying customers) were renamed when they are repurposed to simply house asylum seekers? They are no longer hotels, any more than an old bank or cinema that is now a Wetherspoons is still what it used to be.

People talk about 'luxury' hotels, as though asylum seekers get champagne delivered by room service and people are given free slippers.

Primrose53

Deportation is the only answer.
32,000 immigrants residing in hotels which cost us a fortune and which local people, in the main, do not want.

If you know of any island like Nauru off the UK coast, please let Yvette Cooper know.

People can only be deported if the accepting country will have them. Where would you deport them to, if the country of origin isn't known?

Several military bases near here are being decommissioned. The accommodation will be used as temporary housing. Not a great solution but better than a ship in the Solent.

Doodledog

I wonder if it would help if what were hotels (ie places run for the convenience and luxury of paying customers) were renamed when they are repurposed to simply house asylum seekers? They are no longer hotels, any more than an old bank or cinema that is now a Wetherspoons is still what it used to be.

People talk about 'luxury' hotels, as though asylum seekers get champagne delivered by room service and people are given free slippers.

That is probably what will happen. The injunction was granted on planning grounds and planning laws can be changed.

The one group of people for whom I have no sympathy are the owners of these hotels. Apparently, the hotel in Epping was run-down and hardly ever had many guests. The owner must have been rubbing his hands with glee when he was offered the contract to take asylum seekers. It most certainly was not a luxury hotel.