Call for urgent update on asylum hotel from council

Joanne Sexton is the leader of Spelthorne Borough Council

A council leader has written to the government to ask for an urgent update on an asylum hotel in Surrey

Spelthorne Borough Council's (SBC) Joanne Sexton asked the minister for border security and asylum, Alex Norris, for clarification on the Stanwell Hotel.

It comes after the government announced plans in July to move families seeking asylum out of the hotel and to replace them with single men.

The Home Office said it was "committed to close all asylum hotels" when contacted by the BBC, but did not confirm any details on the Stanwell Hotel.

Councillor Sexton, from the Independent Spelthorne Group, said in the letter: "My understanding is that the families that were residing at the Stanwell Hotel have now been relocated outside the borough.

"Please can you confirm this is the case and address the questions in my previous letters, including what the ministry is intending to do with the hotel, the current occupancy and for what length of time that they will be placed there?"

Councillor Sexton added: "Please could you address this matter urgently."

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was also copied into the most recent letter sent to the minister.

Sexton says she has still not received any answers to her previous letters from 10 and 16 September.

The Home Office added: "We are working closely with local authorities, property partners and across-government so that we can accelerate delivery and more detail will be set out in due course."