Council welcomes government move on asylum hotel

The hotel had initially been considered for housing asylum seekers

North Yorkshire Council has welcomed a decision by the government not to house single male asylum seekers in one of the county's hotels.

The Home Office confirmed it would not be going ahead with the plans at Allerton Court Hotel in Northallerton after concerns were raised by the council.

Council leader Carl Les said: "We were very clear with the government that we had concerns should the plans have been pursued to use the hotel to house numbers of single males. Our view is that this would be entirely inappropriate in the town location."

The Home Office said it had "reduced spending on hotels by almost £1bn".

The council had previously written to the owner of the hotel as well as the Home Office to express concerns that a change of use could breach planning regulations and warned them legal action could be taken.

The government has pledged to end the use of asylum hotels by 2029, but figures released in August showed the number of asylum seekers in hotels had risen slightly since Labour came to power, although still well below the peak reached under the Conservatives.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "This government inherited an asylum system in chaos, with tens of thousands of individuals in hotels waiting for their claims to be heard.

"We have taken urgent action to fix this.

"This year, the rate of asylum decision-making has doubled.

"We have reduced spending on hotels by almost £1bn and we will close every hotel by the end of this parliament."

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