Eleven more asylum hotels have been shut as ministers aim to speed up the closure of such sites housing asylum seekers by the end of this Parliament.
Officials claim the latest raft of hotels to be closed down will save the taxpayer nearly £65m, as the Government continues to grapple to get a grip on the cost of housing illegal migrants.
The use of hotels to house small boat arrivals spiked during the Covid pandemic and have since become the focus of anti-migrant protests, sparking riots and violent demonstrations in some areas of the country.
The 11 hotels, in areas ranging from Bangor in Northern Ireland to Wolverhampton and Oxford, will be handed back to their local communities as ministers seek to move asylum seekers into larger scale sites, such as military barracks.
Officials said “multiple more” hotels will be closed in the coming weeks in a further bid to show voters that it is getting a handle on the small boats crisis.
The issue of immigration has risen up the list of priorities for voters in recent years, with the increase in Channel crossings believed to be fuelling concerns around the issue.
The 11 hotels that have been closed:• Banbury House Hotel – Banbury, Oxfordshire
• Marine Court Hotel – Bangor, Ards and North Down
• 15 Citrus Hotel – Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
• Holiday Inn Heathrow – Hillingdon, London
• Britannia Hotel – Wolverhampton
• Madeley Court Hotel – Madeley, Telford & Wrekin
• OYO Lakeside – St Helens, Merseyside
• Crewe Arms Hotel – Crewe, Cheshire East
• Sure Hotel by Best Western – Aberdeen
• The Rock Hotel – Halifax, Calderdale
• Wool Merchant Hotel – Halifax, Calderdale
The use of hotels ballooned under the previous Conservative government due to a backlog of claims, with around 400 hotels being used to house asylum seekers as they waited for a decision on whether they would be allowed to remain in the country.
Keir Starmer has pledged to close all asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament.
According to the Home Office, the cost of using hotels rose to around £9m a day at its peak, prompting anti-migrant protesters to claim asylum seekers were being given preferential treatment during the cost of living crisis.
Officials say the use of hotels has now been halved, with just under 190 sites still in use.
Border security and asylum minister, Alex Norris, said: “Hotels were meant to be a short-term stopgap under the previous government, but they spiralled out of control – costing taxpayers billions and dumping the consequences on local communities.
“We are shutting them down by moving people into more basic accommodation, scaling up large sites, removing record numbers of people with no right to remain. This is about restoring control, ending waste, and handing hotels back to the community for good.”
Ministers have started to move those awaiting a decision on an asylum claim into bigger sites, such as the Crowborough military barracks in Sussex, which opened three months ago and is already housing 350 people.
It comes after a series of protests outside hotels in recent years, some of which turned violent, including demonstrations in Epping, Essex last summer after an asylum seeker was accused of sexually assaulting a schoolgirl, and another in Rotherham in 2024 when protesters attempted to set fire to a hotel.
Hence then, the article about these 11 asylum hotels have just been shut but 190 remain open for business was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( These 11 asylum hotels have just been shut… but 190 remain open for business )
Also on site :
- 90 Years Later, the World's Most Famous Photo Exposes the Dark Side of Viral Fame: 'I Wish She Hadn't Taken My Picture'
- ‘We have to be able to walk and chew gum’ on government spending, says budget chairman on debt crisis and national security
- Businessman sues British Airways for £50k claiming cut finger caused ‘nightmares and flashbacks’