Goodbye UK asylum hotels
Key Points
- 13 hotels across England have stopped housing asylum seekers and have been returned to their respective communities.
- The scheme ending means that the hotels are free to take paying guests again or convert to other uses.
- This includes the Grand Metropole which sits on Blackpool Promenade and ranks as one of the two oldest hotels in the town.
- The 13 closures are expected to save taxpayers around £51 million, taking the total expected savings from closures this year to £224 million.
13 hotels across England have stopped housing asylum seekers and have been returned to their respective communities. In a statement on Wednesday (12 August), the Home Office said that the closures form part of its plans to shutter the scheme entirely.
The scheme ending means that the hotels are free to take paying guests again or convert to other uses. This is expected to boost nearby pubs, shops, and restaurants who would otherwise have benefitted from tourists to the area.
The full list of returned hotels include:
- Ramada Jarvis Hotel (Loughborough)
- Chimney House Hotel (Sandbach)
- Britannia Ashley Hotel (Hale)
- Gold Thorn Hotel (Wolverhampton)
- Grand Metropole Hotel (Blackpool)
- Nottingham Hotel (Nottingham)
- Grosvenor Hotel (Stratford-upon-Avon)
- Staycity Apartments Deptford Bridge (Lewisham)
- Needham House (Hitchin)
- Holiday Inn (Bridgwater)
- Holiday Inn Express (Dunstable)
- Dubrovnik Hotel (Bradford)
- Best Western Brook Hotel (Norwich)
Notably, the Grand Metropole sits on Blackpool Promenade and ranks as one of the two oldest hotels in the town.
Another notable hotel is the Grosvenor in Stratford-upon-Avon which occupies a run of Georgian-style townhouses dating to 1842 and has traded as hotel for some 40 years.
Significant cost savings
The 13 closures are expected to save taxpayers around £51 million, taking the total expected savings from closures this year to £224 million. Asylum accommodation costs are estimated to have fallen by almost £1 billion since the 2024 general election.
A total of 160 hotels still remain in operation, down from a peak of 400 in 2023 which cost an estimated £9 million a day.
To replace the hotels, the government is instead expanding its use of larger basic accommodation, including former miliary sites.
The government has said that it will also introduce a 24-week target to decide on asylum cases, down from the 67-week average currently.
“We are turning that around by ending the use of asylum hotels for good and moving people into larger, basic accommodation like former military sites,” said Immigration Minister Anna Turley.
“This government’s reforms are overhauling the immigration system to restore control at the border, and fairness to our immigration system.”
