Call to shut down asylum seeker housing rejected

Hundreds of people gathered outside Nuneaton Town Hall in August

A move to shut down temporary accommodation for asylum seekers has been turned down.

An extraordinary meeting, called by Conservatives on Nuneaton & Bedworth Borugh Council, saw the group request officers to write to the government to ask for "an immediate review of all asylum seekers" and to "shut down" temporary accommodation units.

However, a counter proposal from the Labour group was voted through on the chairman's casting vote, after a 15-15 draw between the two parties.

The meeting was held following recent community tensions after two men, reported to be Afghan asylum seekers, denied charges in connection with the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton.

The meeting, which lasted more than three hours, saw councillors consider two motions, with disruptions from the public gallery resulting in two people threatened with ejection by chairman, mayor Bhim Saru.

The first Conservative motion saw a call for the Home Office, Warwickshire Police, Warwickshire County Council and Serco to be asked to attend a scrutiny meeting.

'Detention and deportation'

Despite opposition from the 15 councillors on the Labour group, it passed with 18 votes, 15 from the Conservatives plus two Green councillors and one independent.

As part of the second motion, the Conservatives proposed "detention and deportation of asylum seekers or illegal immigrants" who were not in the country lawfully and legislation to disapply the Human Rights Act from "all asylum claims".

Labour's successful counter proposal commits to looking at implementing new planning policies to assess the suitability of houses of multiple occupation (HMOs).

The amendment also requests a briefing from the Home Office and Serco, the firm that runs the HMOs, "regarding the number and location of asylum seekers" and criteria used for placement.

It also commits to asking the government to allow asylum seekers to be able to work while claims are processed.

An extraordinary meeting of the council was called on Tuesday

Conservative leader Kris Wilson said the priority as councillors "should be to those in housing need within our borough".

"Dispersing people in the way that is happening now is not helping community tensions," he added.

The deputy leader, Labour councillor Steve Hey, said the party "will make progress" towards solving "what is a very difficult problem".

"I am very disappointed with the members opposite, raising all this in this way at a time when there is extraordinary and biased focus in the borough with misinformation and plain nastiness circulating on a daily basis," he said and called out the "pure hypocrisy" of the council not implementing a policy on HMOs during the time the Conservatives were in charge.

Labour gained control of Nuneaton and Bedworth Council from the Conservatives in the 2024 local elections.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.