Home Office to stop using hotel for asylum seekers

Asylum seekers will no longer be housed at the Park Hotel in Diss

The Home Office has decided to no longer use a hotel in Norfolk for housing asylum seekers, a council says.

The decision on the Park Hotel in Diss follows protests last month that began after officials said they wanted to send single men to the premises, currently providing accommodation for women and children seeking asylum.

Conservative-run South Norfolk Council, which had opposed the move, said it was told by the Home Office on Friday afternoon that the building would no longer be used as an asylum hotel.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said it was "not planning to use this site beyond the end of the current contract" as part of efforts to reduce the number of hotels in use.

There were protests outside the Park Hotel last month after the Home Office said it wanted to house single men there

The decision comes three days after the High Court granted Epping Forest District Council a temporary injunction to block asylum seekers from lodging at The Bell Hotel in Epping.

That prompted other councils to say that they too were thinking of taking legal action.

News of the Home Office's decision to stop using the Park Hotel was welcomed by council leader Daniel Elmer.

"The Home Office thought it could just impose this change and that we would accept it," he said.

"But there is a right way of doing things and the decision by the Home Office was just plain wrong."

The council had told the Home Office that moving out the women and children and replacing them with single men would upset local people and "a community of asylum seekers that are already integrating very well into the local area".

'Opened its arms'

Elmer had made it clear that he would oppose the plans and, if necessary, take legal action against the Home Office, while the hotel's owners said they would shut it down rather than accept single men.

He said: "Although I welcome the decision, in reality it does mean that the women and children who we fought so hard to protect will now be moved elsewhere, and that is a shame.

"South Norfolk, and Diss in particular, has always opened its arms to people in need and that's something that should make us all very proud."

New figures show there were 32,059 asylum seekers in UK hotels at the end of June, up 8% on the same point 12 months ago.

Although higher than a year ago, the total is slightly down on the previous quarter - and well down on the peak of 56,042 in September 2023.

Earlier, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the government was to appeal against the Epping injunction.

She said it was committed to closing all asylum hotels but it needed to happen "in a properly managed way".

Referring to the Park Hotel, Adrian Ramsay, Green Party MP for Waveney Valley, said in a statement: "We have had an extended period of uncertainty over the future of the hotel so at least we now have clarity."

Ramsay, co-leader of the party, added: "I feel for the families who have been living in the hotel who have been caught in the middle of the arguments about the hotel's future.

"I do feel that poor planning from the Home Office has resulted in weeks of uncertainty for the families and I hope they will now be given proper support and information."

The Home Office spokesperson added: "Since taking office, we have taken immediate action to fix the asylum system.

"From over 400 asylum hotels open in summer 2023, costing almost £9 million a day, there are now fewer than 210.

"We will continue to work with partners across all regions and nations of the UK to manage the use of asylum accommodation responsibly."