Asylum seeker hotel numbers up by 13% in three months, new data shows

The number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels has risen by 13% in three months, new figures show.

There were 36,273 people staying in such accommodation in September, while they await a decision on their asylum claims.

The issue has come to the fore in recent times with protests outside hotels.

Last month, the Government announced that two barracks in Scotland and southern England would be used to house around 900 men temporarily, as part of Government efforts to stop using hotels to temporarily house asylum seekers.

Labour has pledged to no longer be using asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament – which would be 2029, if not earlier.

But the latest data showed an increase, from 32,041 in June to 36,273 in September.

The number was also up on the same point last year, when there were 35,628 asylum seekers in hotels.

The number of asylum seekers in hotels peaked at 56,018 at the end of September 2023 under the then-Conservative government but dropped to a record low of 29,561 in June 2024 just before the general election.

Figures for hotels published by the Home Office on Thursday date back to December 2022.

Prime Minister Sr Keir Starmer has previously said he wants to see asylum hotels closed “as quickly as possible”, but insisted Labour “inherited a huge mess” from the Tories, blaming them for failing to process claims, leading to increased numbers of people in asylum hotels.

In response to the latest data a Home Office spokesperson said there are now “fewer than 200 (asylum hotels) in use and we will close every single one” – this is down slightly on a previous figure the department gave earlier this year that there were fewer than 210 hotels in use.

The spokesperson said: “Work is well under way to move illegal migrants into military bases to ease pressure on communities across the country.

“And that’s why last week we set out the most sweeping reforms in modern times to restore order and control to our borders.

“We will remove the incentives that draw illegal migrants to the UK and make it easier to remove and deport them.”

The Home Office announced in October that it would be using two military sites – Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex – as contingency accommodation.

At the weekend, hundreds of people turned out to protest against the plans for the Crowborough site, which has the capacity to house 540 men.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, concerns have been raised about “community cohesion”, and how the local authority could ensure people are prepared for the “sudden” presence of a few hundred asylum seekers.

This week, Epping Forest District Council (EFDC) said it would seek to appeal against a High Court ruling which dismissed its bid to stop the Bell Hotel in Essex from housing asylum seekers.

The hotel became the centre of a wave of protests over the summer after an asylum seeker housed there was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Epping in July.