𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The Home Office has confirmed the closure of 11 asylum hotels across the UK with “multiple more” set to follow.

The government said the closures come as it “ramps up action” to end the use of hotels for illegal migrants as part of efforts to “fix the broken asylum system”. According to the Home Office, the latest round of closures alone will save the taxpayer almost £65 million per year as hotels are given back to local communities. The move brings the total number of hotels used to house asylum seekers below 190, having peaked at around 400 under the Conservatives.

At the end of 2025, the number of people being housed in hotels stood at 30,657, down 15% on September, but the number is still way above the record low of 29,561 just before the 2024 general election. But at the same time, the number of people in “dispersal accommodation” rose by almost 3,000 over 2025. Dispersal accommodation typically includes privately managed houses, flats or rooms in properties of multiple occupancy, and is only available to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said, despite the latest closures, the latest figures show more asylum seekers in hotels than at the time of the election.

He said: “That’s despite the government shunting people from hotels into residential apartments to hide what is going on. Those apartments are then not available for young people struggling to get on the housing ladder.

“Most asylum seekers are illegal immigrants. Keir Starmer has let in more small boat illegal immigrants than any Prime Minister in history and numbers are 45% up since the election.

“The Conservative plan is to leave the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) so that illegal immigrants are deported within a week of arrival – not put up in hotels or apartments. But Labour is too weak to do that.”

Among the 11 closures are hotels that drew protests last year, including the Britannia Hotel in Wolverhampton and the OYO Lakeside in St Helens.

Labour said the closures are being driven by reforms introduced by the Home Secretary, including increasing removals of people with no right to remain and moving those in the system out of expensive hotels.

The government also said it is scaling up the use of large, basic accommodation sites instead to move people out of hotels “for good”.

According to the latest Home Office figures, up to 350 illegal migrants have been moved to the Crowborough military barracks, in East Sussex, which opened to asylum seekers in January. The Home Office said those who are housed and have their asylum claims rejected will be removed from the UK.

The following 11 asylum hotels across the UK have now been closed and more are due to follow “in the coming weeks”:

• Banbury House Hotel – Banbury, Oxfordshire
• Marine Court Hotel – Bangor, Ards and North Down
• 15 Citrus Hotel – Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
• Holiday Inn Heathrow – Hillingdon, London
• Britannia Hotel – Wolverhampton
• Madeley Court Hotel – Madeley, Telford & Wrekin
• OYO Lakeside – St Helens, Merseyside
• Crewe Arms Hotel – Crewe, Cheshire East
• Sure Hotel by Best Western – Aberdeen
• The Rock Hotel – Halifax, Calderdale
• Wool Merchant Hotel – Halifax, Calderdale
  

Border Security and Asylum Minister Alex Norris said: “Hotels were meant to be a short‑term stop‑gap under the previous government, but they spiralled out of control – costing taxpayers billions and dumping the consequences on local communities.

“We are shutting them down by moving people into more basic accommodation, scaling up large sites, removing record numbers of people with no right to remain. This is about restoring control, ending waste, and handing hotels back to the community for good.”