The five military sites where anger at housing migrants could unravel PM’s plans ...Middle East

When ministers last month unveiled plans to move thousands of asylum seekers into disused military facilities, it is unlikely they anticipated having to confront the stone curlew in their efforts to resolve the vexed issue of housing Britain’s migrant arrivals.

But the needs of this googly-eyed wading bird, itself a migratory visitor to these shores, is just one of a growing number of grassroots obstacles which threaten to derail the Labour strategy inherited by Andy Burnham to move asylum seekers out of costly hotels and into accommodation in disused barracks and airfields.

Alongside the protected habitat of the stone curlew, which campaigners say will be illegally threatened by plans to open a migrant camp in Suffolk, the Government now faces challenges to its policy ranging from High Court proceedings to the announcement by an Oxfordshire village this week that it is to hold a vote to leave the United Kingdom in protest at attempts to house asylum seekers at a former garrison on its doorstep.

The burgeoning number of protests is proof of the enduring difficulties over absorbing cross-Channel migrants into communities while asylum claims are processed.

‘Unsuitable’ rural locations

But it is also evidence of the predicament faced by a new prime minister who has put devolving power to local areas at the core of his political philosophy and yet faces increasingly voluble accusations that his newly reappointed Home Secretary is bent on shoehorning large populations of male asylum seekers into “unsuitable” rural locations.

The Home Office last month announced it wanted to open new accommodation centres housing some 3,750 people at three ex-military sites – RAF Barnham in Suffolk, RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire and MoD Bicester in Oxfordshire – as part of plans to close all hotels hosting asylum seekers by 2029.

At the same time, two existing military sites – Crowborough in East Sussex and Wethersfield in Essex – are to have their proposed dates for closure and capacity extended. In all cases, the Government said it would only proceed if planning permission was granted.

There were 93,653 people in asylum accommodation as of March 2026, with around 22 per cent (20,885) in hotels. In April, the Government subsequently said there were around 185 hotels in operation after the closure of 11 sites.

Burnham is believed to back proposals to rip up lucrative asylum hotel contracts operated by companies such as Serco and Clearspring Ready Homes – currently worth some £15.3bn – and make councils house migrants.

However, the return to the Home Office of Shabana Mahmood, who recently reiterated her determination to see through the proposals for military sites, suggests an asylum volte face from the new PM is unlikely.

The result has been a vigorous – and in places, furious – rejection of the proposals from concerned residents and human rights groups, who insist the often isolated sites lack adequate facilities and support, as well as local authorities and MPs, including several Labour parliamentarians whose constituencies host or sit adjacent to the proposed accommodation.

In a move likely to give hope to those opposing the schemes, the Government has already dropped plans to use a barracks in Inverness following local objections and the insistence of the local authority that the scheme would require a licence.

‘Development here will not be possible’

In at least two cases, opponents elsewhere are resorting to more unusual tactics.

West Suffolk Council, which is formally opposing the proposals to use RAF Barnham to house about 1,200 people, confirmed this week that its Labour leader has written to the Home Office to put forward its view that laws designed to protect rare wildlife habitats mean “development here will not be possible”.

The former base, which was once a Cold War storage facility for Britain’s nuclear weapons, sits within two designated conservation areas which are home to the stone curlew, a reclusive endangered species – dubbed “Britain’s oddest bird” -whose environment cannot be disturbed under the Habitats Regulations. Conservationists announced last year that its numbers had doubled to about 350 breeding pairs as a result of measures to protect populations in places like Suffolk.

The local authority pointed out that the wildlife rules had halted previous efforts to explore development on the military site and said it expected the same restriction to apply to the Home Office scheme. In a statement, the council said: “It has previously been established that housing, roads, recreational uses, and increased levels of human activity can disturb stone curlew. The species is particularly sensitive to human presence.”

The Home Office confirmed it had received the letter and said its proposals would be subject to all relevant legal, environmental and regulatory requirements.

Welcome to the “Principality of Piddington”

Quite how it will deal with a vote by the 400 or so residents of the village of Piddington to leave the United Kingdom altogether over the plans is perhaps a different matter.

The Oxfordshire village, which sits less than a mile from the ex-MoD site outside Bicester proposed to house 1,250 people, announced this week that its population had backed a proposal to hold a formal referendum on establishing a “Principality of Piddington” by 96 per cent in an indicative vote held last weekend.

The proposal faces certain practical difficulties in so far as it would take an Act of Parliament before any part of the UK could secede.

But Tim McNally, the parish council chairman who is leading the campaign and has sent a letter to Number 10 setting out villagers’ concerns, insisted the referendum scheme was far from being a “gimmick” and was being looked at by other communities.

He told The i Paper: “The villagers of Piddington feel trapped and disappointed by the government’s decision. This is going to be a major challenge for the government. I have been contacted by many other areas wanting to understand how they can use our blueprint to seek their own self determination.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The concerns of communities are central to our immigration reforms, which is why we are working with local authorities and others to fairly disperse asylum seekers across basic accommodation including ex-military sites.”

Questions over democratic accountability

In all three of the proposed locations, some residents have said they are happy to see asylum seekers welcomed as long as adequate support, including language lessons and legal advice, is made available. The number of asylum seekers in hotels has fallen significantly from a peak of 56,000 in 400 locations in 2023 to some 20,855 in 170 sites this March.

But as far as opponents of the housing plans are concerned, the latest housing proposals raise real questions about democratic accountability.

On at least one of the proposed sites, MoD Bicester, there are concerns that the Government will bypass the local authority planning process and instead use special powers – known as a Crown Development Order – to hand the decision on whether the housing scheme goes ahead to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Earlier this week, a High Court judge was told by a group representing residents in Crowborough, where some 540 men are housed in a former army training camp, that the Home Office had acted unlawfully when it used similar “emergency” rules to open the site in January and had proceeded “under conditions of secrecy”. Lawyers for the Home Office said the claims were “legally erroneous”.

Several local politicians told The i Paper this week that community concerns were in danger of being “steamrollered” by the Government’s determination to resolve the political headache of asylum hotels, which continue to attract protests, some linked to the far-right.

Tom Cunningham, the Conservative leader of Braintree District Council, which includes the Wethersfield camp, said the local authority remained strongly opposed to the site’s current use but it was “unclear” whether it would have any say in the proposal to extend its use and capacity. The council said that legal action to challenge the plans remains a possibility.

Mr Cunningham said: “We are unclear as to the precise route of planning consent, whether there will be any local planning decision-making in terms of agreeing or not to the additional capacity. I suspect not.”

‘People are quietly confident’

Some 200 miles north of Braintree, the inhabitants of Linton-on-Ouse are similarly non-plused at the process unfolding before them.

The community north of York is one of two sites currently under consideration (MoD Bicester being the other) which has previously fought off similar plans. In 2022, the then Conservative government dropped proposals to house asylum seekers at the former RAF base. Among those decrying the scheme at the time was then opposition leader Keir Starmer.

Marc Goddard, chairman of the village’s parish council, said he hoped the enthusiasm of Sir Keir’s successor for devolving power would see the region’s Labour mayor, who is opposed to the scheme, granted the right of rejection.

But as villagers dusted down protest signs, placards and lobbying tactics last deployed in 2022, he said residents were in all circumstances ready to make their case to once again overturn the plans.

Mr Goddard said: “I think there is a resolute feeling. We need to fight this on the same grounds as we fought last time – that is the completely unsuitable nature of the camp for both residents and for migrants alike. And I think people are quietly confident that we can do that.”

In the meantime, it seems likely ministers will continue to calculate they can ill afford not to explore all asylum housing options open to them as other schemes – among them turning student accommodation in Leeds and Huddersfield and the acquisition of multiple-occupancy houses in Shropshire – run into planning difficulties.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The government is removing the incentives drawing illegal migrants to Britain. That is why we will close every single asylum hotel, moving illegal migrants into basic accommodation like military barracks. We have already seen results. The population of asylum seekers in hotels has fallen by 35 per cent in the last year.”

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