Kidderminster hotel to stop housing asylum seekers

Wyre Forest District Council (pictured) said by the end of February the Home Office would not use the hotel to accommodate asylum seekers

A Worcestershire hotel housing asylum seekers will not have any staying from next year, a council has said.

The Home Office was terminating its contract with Gainsborough House in Kidderminster, Wyre Forest District Council stated.

The government, which plans to end 50 hotels' contracts by the end of 2023, has said it is "standing up" more appropriate forms of accommodation.

Costs may pass to councils, the Local Government Association (LGA) said.

According to the council, asylum seekers would no longer be accommodated at Gainsborough House from February, with the authority learning of the move by letter.

Current residents would be given notice and moved to other parts of the government's asylum estate, the council added.

Leader Marcus Hart said the authority welcomed the Home Office decision.

The council, he explained, would work to ensure there was no impact on itself as a result of people moving on from the hotel.

Mr Hart stated the district had "a history of welcoming people of all nationalities".

'Reduce reliance'

The council looked forward to the Home Office "continuing to reduce its reliance on hotels" to house asylum seekers, he added, and that the government would "also be able to release more hotels, including another in Bewdley, in due course".

A planning application submitted to the authority to convert Gainsborough House into 27 self-contained flats, is pending consideration.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, immigration minister Robert Jenrick said the government was "standing up cheaper and more appropriate forms of accommodation".

He added: "Instead of being housed in sometimes luxurious hotels, asylum seekers will be housed in disused military sites and barges like in Portland."

LGA chairman Shaun Davies has said councils are legally obliged to find accommodation for large numbers of refugees representing as homeless after leaving hotel accommodation and during the processing of their asylum applications.

Across the border in Herefordshire, asylum seeker families are set to return to a hotel after urgent repair work was carried out.

Families staying in the Talbot Hotel in Leominster had to move out at the start of this month, after structural issues were found with the building.

Herefordshire Council has since been told the hotel will again accommodate asylum seekers, with some of the original families being offered the chance to return.