Asylum hotel provider fears more could close

Steve Lakey, the managing director of Clearsprings Ready Homes Ltd, said he feared the High Court case could cause a "domino effect"

The boss of a government contractor which provides accommodation for asylum seekers said he feared "a domino effect" of hotels closing to migrants.

Steve Lakey, the managing director of Clearsprings Ready Homes, was giving evidence at the High Court hearing surrounding The Bell Hotel in Essex.

Epping Forest District Council wants a permanent injunction stopping migrants from being housed there.

"The impact that [an injunction] may cause us is if it has a domino effect of hotels not wanting to house asylum seekers," he said.

Clearsprings provides accommodation services for asylum seekers in southern England and Wales.

The company, whose headquarters is in Rayleigh in Essex, has made nearly £187m in profit over the last six years supporting about 30,000 migrants.

About half of them were in hotels.

Clearsprings was the service provider for The Bell between May 2020 and March 2021, and is still involved with services there.

The High Court was told on Friday that there were about 95 single male asylum seekers still there, and Mr Lakey said "we would struggle" to find alternative accommodation if it closed.

Council barrister Philip Coppel KC highlighted Clearsprings' "spectacular profit" and said "with this sort of money, you can always go to market" for new accommodation.

Mr Lakey responded: "The challenge is where we put them.

"If they are not in The Bell Hotel, which hotel are we going to put them in? We will face the same problems we have here."

Protesters and the police have been outside The Bell Hotel repeatedly since July

The Conservative-run council claims Somani Hotels, which owns the site, should have applied for fresh planning permission in order to turn it into asylum seeker accommodation.

The owner and the Home Office are opposing the injunction case.

A judge already awarded the council with a temporary injunction in August, but this was later overturned.

The Bell became the epicentre of protests this summer that spread to other parts of the UK.

An asylum seeker who was housed there had been arrested and subsequently charged with two sexual assaults.

Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian national who arrived in the UK on a small boat, was jailed for a year in September.

The High Court hearing ended on Friday and Mr Justice Mould indicated he would give his ruling in writing at a later date.