Jemma Crew & Dominic Casciani
Reporting from court

Lord Justice Bean grants the home secretary's application for permission to appeal, and grants the Home Secretary intervenor status.

Lord Justice Bean says: "The Home Secretary has clear statutory duties to asylum seekers under 1999 legislation. These include a duty to provide support to them and prevent destitution.

"Given these duties in addition to her constitutional role relating to public safety the Home Secretary is plainly directly affected."

Jemma Crew & Dominic Casciani
Reporting from court

More background now on the history of the hotel’s use for accommodating asylum seekers.

Somani Hotels applied for planning permission during the second period. But, Lord Justice Bean said the council did not deal with its application for “over a year”.

The asylum seekers then moved out - and Somani Hotels withdrew its application.

Somani Hotels then entered into a new contract, and in April 2025 it re-opened to provide accommodation. The council said it would have to seek permission.

Somani Hotels, on advice from the Home Office, said it would not be submitting an application for a temporary change of use. The council did not reply.

On 9 August, the council without notice issued injunction proceedings against Somani Hotels.

Since 8 July there has been largely continuous protests outside the hotel, following an allegation of sexual assault by one of its residents.

Jemma Crew & Dominic Casciani
Reporting from court

The judge is now setting out background facts. He says the Bell Hotel is situated on the outskirts of the centre of Epping and as we reported earlier, run by Somani Hotels.

It currently accommodates approximately 138 asylum seekers - the provision of this accommodation is under contract between Somani Hotels and CTM, a company contracted by the Home Office.

It is the third time the hotel has been used to accommodate asylum seekers. It was first used between May 2020 and March 2021, and then October 2022 to April 2024.

At no time during these earlier periods did the council take steps to restrain Somani from providing accommodation.

Jemma Crew & Dominic Casciani
Reporting from court

Lord Justice Bean says the temporary injunction, granted by the High Court, was to last for only a relatively brief period until the trial of the council’s claim before a judge.

This is listed for a date in mid-October.

He adds this case is not about the merits of the government’s policy of where to house asylum seekers.

Jemma Crew & Dominic Casciani
Reporting from court

Image source, BBC Pool

Lord Justice Bean is reading a summary of the panel’s judgement.

These are two linked applications for permission to appeal, says the senior judge. The first is brought by the home secretary and the second by Somani Hotels, which owns the Bell Hotel.

The appeals concern the temporary injunction granted to the council on 19 August. The injunction restrains Somani from using the Bell Hotel as accommodation for asylum seekers.

The council argues that Somani’s actions are in breach of planning law.

Jemma Crew & Dominic Casciani
Reporting from court

The three Court of Appeal judges have entered court to hand down their decision.

Lady Justice Nicola Davies, Lord Justice Bean and Lord Justice Cobb are sitting in a row at the front of the room.

My colleague Dominic Casciani and I are here and will bring you their remarks shortly.

As a reminder that you can follow along by clicking Watch live at the top of this page.

Dominic Casciani
Reporting from court

The Court of Appeal’s task is legally quite simple.

But whichever way it rules, this case about where to put just 138 men could have wide-ranging political implications for the future of the Home Office’s asylum policy.

Ministers want the order to clear the Bell Hotel by the 12th of September lifted because they are under a legal duty from Parliament to keep asylum seekers off the streets - and its in the public interest for the Home Office to be left to best manage asylum accommodation.

Clearing this one establishment would damage a plan to end hotel use in four years, they argue.

Epping Forest District Council says it fears for the safety of children who are soon returning to school, following weeks of on-off protests.

Jemma Crew
Reporting from court

I'm in the Court of Appeal with a handful of journalists who have arrived early ahead of the afternoon's ruling.

We are in one of its more modern courtrooms, with rows of light wood benches, and books lining the walls.

In front of us will be the legal teams representing the Home Office, hotel group and local authority involved in the case.

We're all waiting for a decision from the three senior judges this afternoon - any time from 14:00.

Stay with us and we'll bring you the latest.

Lewis Adams
Reporting from Essex

You would have been hard-pressed to find anyone outside of Epping who had heard of the Bell Hotel a few weeks ago.

Yet now the building in this leafy Essex town has become a reluctant symbol of the political tension surrounding immigration.

Regardless of their views on the topic, many locals have told the BBC of their discomfort at having their home town thrust under the national spotlight.

Thousands have been protesting outside the hotel in recent weeks after an asylum seeker living there, Hadush Kebatu, was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. He denies the charges.

They will be hoping today’s outcome moves towards restoring the calm environment Epping is so used to.

James Bryant
Reporting from the Bell Hotel

I’ve just turned up at the Bell Hotel on the High Road in Epping to find the hotel signage has been covered up or removed, with many elements around the hotel now daubed with spray painted St George’s red cross.

A couple of police have turned up in the last few minutes.

Mirrored on the opposite side of the road by two protesters wielding a single Union Jack flag, supported occasionally by the passing pips of a car horn.

A former adviser to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says a ban on housing asylum seekers at the Bell Hotel in Epping could send a signal that if you protest "loudly enough for long enough then you could get an asylum hotel closed in your local area".

Danny Shaw, who is also a former BBC home affairs correspondent, says the Home Office will have contingency plans in place for what to do with the 138 men housed at the Bell Hotel.

But if the government loses, "they've lost a key legal case", he tells BBC's Today programme.

Shaw says the government has to set out its plan to stop use of asylum hotels by 2029.

"It has been pretty silent, it needs to set out a roadmap" including speeding up asylum decisions, and using more private rented accommodation or ex-military bases, he says.

Muhammad, from Afghanistan, spent six months in an asylum hotel earlier this year and recalls how people would film residents outside his hotel "without permission, using it in a negative way".

We heard Muhammad's story through the Refugee Council, an organisation that supports asylum seekers and refugees in the UK.

The organisation tells the BBC that for as long as hotels remain open they will continue to "fuel tensions and drive communities apart".

"Through our frontline work we see how protests outside asylum hotels can terrify people who’ve already fled war in places like Sudan and Afghanistan," Enver Solomon, Refugee Council's chief executive says.

Muhammad, who has now been granted asylum, says hostility outside hotels "affects people and makes them feel hopeless about the system".

"One of my friends has been in a hotel for more than two years - he is very talented, but the uncertainty is a mental disaster," Muhammad adds.

Ruling won't draw a line under issue of asylum hotelspublished at 13:22 British Summer Time

13:22 BST

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

There is political jeopardy in every direction for the government this afternoon.

Ministers find themselves in the uncomfortable position of using European law to help them fight to keep this asylum hotel open, while arguing they are trying to end their use more generally.

One Labour strategist I was speaking to this morning said they worried about the consequences, regardless of how the Court of Appeal ruled.

Their reasoning was that if government wins and the Bell Hotel is allowed to keep housing asylum seekers, public anger would mount and more attention would be drawn to the fact it was Labour fighting to keep it open - while Reform UK and the Conservatives had joined those protesting.

If the government loses, other councils would bring similar legal challenges and wider asylum policy could unravel.

This ruling is the climax of a summer of protests and pressure on the government over immigration. But whatever the judges decide, it won’t draw a line under the issue of asylum hotels.

Many Labour MPs will return to Westminster next week pushing ministers for a tougher and quicker response.

Image source, Reuters

One of the asylum seekers currently living at the Bell Hotel in Epping has spoken to the BBC, and says he and others have been left "in the dark" about their future.

Abdi, a Somali man, who says he was moved to the hotel in May, tells the BBC: "We don't know if one day a bus comes and says we're going out from here."

Abdi, not his real name, adds that closing the hotel would not solve the root cause of the problem.

"If this happens - if we are taken out of this place - then they will surely take us from every place we go to. It's going to be the same," he says.

He says he spent three years travelling to the UK after fleeing a terrorist group, arriving on a small boat he paid €1,000 (£864) to board.

Abdi criticises some of his fellow asylum seekers living at the Bell Hotel, saying he has seen fights, drunkenness and drug use.

The government has pledged to no longer use hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this Parliament.

Image source, Getty Images

The Home Office and owners of the Bell Hotel have challenged a High Court ruling that would stop asylum seekers from staying at the hotel, which has housed asylum seekers intermittently since 2020.

Here's a brief look back at how we got here:

8 July: Essex Police are alerted to reports of a man acting inappropriately towards a teenager in High Road, Epping.

Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, who lived at the Bell Hotel, is arrested and later charged with three counts of sexual assault, one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and one count of harassment without violence. He denies all the offences.

13 July: Protests, including some violent clashes, begin at the hotel. Thousands of people have attended anti-immigration protests and counter-demonstrations since.

12 August: Epping Forest District Council applies for an interim High Court injunction to remove asylum seekers from the Bell Hotel.

19 August: A High Court judge grants the temporary injunction, ordering asylum seekers at the site to be moved out by 12 September.

22 August: The government seeks the right to appeal against the High Court ruling.

26 August: The owner of the Bell Hotel is granted permission to challenge the decision at the Court of Appeal.

Yesterday: The council, hotel owners and the home secretary's team present their arguments in the Court of Appeal.

Today: A decision will be made on the appeal at 14:00 - we'll be keeping a close eye on developments and will bring you the latest.

Since 2020 councils and charities have been much more reliant on hotels to house asylum seekers.

The trend is driven by "the large backlog of asylum applications and a shortage of long-term housing options," according to Oxford University's Migration Observatory think tank.

Under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, the home secretary is "required to provide accommodation to all destitute asylum seekers while their asylum claims are being decided".

The Home Office says the use of hotels has been necessary to meet its legal obligations to those eligible for support.

There are different types of accommodation for asylum seekers depending on the stage of their immigration case, these are:

• Initial accommodation: Used to accommodate people while their application for long-term accommodation is decided, and in the interim while they wait to move to long-term lodgings
• Dispersal accommodation: Used once someone has been granted asylum, this is longer-term housing normally provided as private housing in local communities - this is offered on a "no-choice basis" across the UK

Image source, Getty Images

The legal battle, which we're expecting a ruling on today, boils down to whether or not asylum seekers can continue to be housed in the Bell Hotel.

Here's a summary of what each side is arguing:

The Home Office and the Bell Hotel

The government is challenging a High Court ruling temporarily blocking migrants from being housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex.

Home Office lawyers say the case runs the risk of sparking further protests, "some of which may be disorderly, around other asylum accommodation".

The Bell Hotel's lawyers argue the injunction created a "risk of a precedent being set" and said the ruling was set to cause "the loss of accommodation for asylum seekers", impacting the Home Office's ability to perform its legal duties to them.

Epping Forest District Council

The Conservative-run council argued housing asylum seekers in the hotel was "a clear breach of planning permission. It is not in use as a hotel, and it doesn’t function as a hotel".

They told the court this case was different to others in recent years as the hotel had become a safety risk, citing the protests in recent weeks. "The current situation cannot go on," Leader of Epping Forest District Council Chris Whitbread said.

Philip Coppel KC, for the local authority, said there was "no compelling reason" for the appeal bid to be allowed.

Matt Spivey
Live editor

Lawyers from the Home Office and the Bell Hotel have been challenging a High Court ruling stopping asylum seekers from being housed at the hotel in Epping, Essex.

A judgement on their appeal is expected today at 14:00 BST.

The Bell Hotel has become the focal point of anti-immigration protests and counter-protests in recent weeks after a 38-year-old asylum seeker, Hadush Kebatu, was arrested and charged for allegedly sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. He denies all the offences.

Following legal action by Epping Forest District Council earlier this month, a court ordered all 138 asylum seekers living in the hotel must be removed by 12 September.

On Thursday the Court of Appeal heard from barristers who said the temporary injunction could spark further protests and risk "a precedent being set", as other councils consider similar injunctions.

We'll bring you the latest developments from both inside and outside the courtroom - stay with us.