Asylum: Hotels

(asked on 9th March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the timescale is for the closure of initial asylum hotel accommodation; and what the timescale of the notice period will be for residents and local authorities to be notified of such closures.


Answered by
Chris Philp Portrait
Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
This question was answered on 16th March 2021

Increased asylum intake, alongside measures taken to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, has meant that the Home Office has had to deal with growing demand for asylum support and accommodation services.

We recognise that hotel accommodation, as a method to deal with increased intake and temporary COVID measures can only ever be a short-term solution to meet our immediate statutory need.

We have set up a recovery programme to work with our accommodation providers to procure sufficient dispersed accommodation so that we can eliminate the use of hotel contingency accommodation. Our accommodation providers are also working to maximise procurement opportunities throughout the UK. However, we can only do that where Local Authorities agree to us procuring accommodation.

We remain committed to working collaboratively with communities and stakeholders and are doing our utmost to ensure those affected by decisions regarding asylum accommodation are properly consulted, despite the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

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