The Bell Hotel must oust its asylum seekers within 28 days. A High Court judge has ruled in favour of Epping Forest District Council’s request to stop asylum seekers being housed at the local hotel – a site of numerous recent protests, one of which turned violent after a resident was charged with sexual assault. The Home Office’s last-minute attempt to have the case dismissed failed. It had warned that the decision would “substantially impact” its ability to accommodate asylum seekers in hotels.
Whether this is a victory for mob rule and the far right or planning regulation and Nimbys, it reveals the true extent of government impotence. The Home Office has a duty to avoid destitution – it cannot empty the hotels until there are enough houses available to shelter asylum seekers. This dispersal strategy is currently underway with the likes of Serco contracted by the government to offer dreamy deals to landlords to convert their properties into houses of multiple occupancy to house asylum seekers. But these, too, will create the same tense dynamics as the hotels. They already draw local complaint and unease – and pressure on councils to regulate against them.
While Labour ministers have made repeated promises to close the asylum hotels, and are vocally opposed to the policy – introduced by the Conservatives when the pandemic hit in 2020 – cases such as the Bell Hotel reveal how the Home Office has to fight to keep them open. “Do you think anyone wanted to house asylum seekers in hotels?” as one despairing minister put it. The government is stuck in asylum Hotel California. It can check out of the policy any time it likes, but it can never leave.
[See also: Why the student movement is abandoning Labour]
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