Hotels can be used to house asylum seekers in UK after government wins appeal

Judge overturns earlier ruling prohibiting asylum seekers from living in a hotel that has been the focus of protests

A protester speaks to a police officer duringa demonstration at The Bell Hotel. Reuters

Hotels can continue to be used to house asylum seekers in the UK, after the government won its appeal against a court's decision which would have blocked the policy.

Judges said last week's interim injunction was “seriously flawed” and “may incentivise” others to take similar legal action.

The legal battle centres around The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, south-east England, which became a flashpoint for local protests after an Ethiopian asylum seeker was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

Epping Forest District Council went to court, gaining the injunction to prevent the hotel owners Somani Hotels from using the property to accommodate 138 asylum seekers beyond September 12.

But the Home Office and Somani challenged the injunction which has now been overturned.

After the decision, protesters carrying England and Union flag began to gather outside the hotel, with police officers guarding its entrance – which is gated off with metal fencing.

At the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Bean, sitting with Lady Justice Nicola Davies and Lord Justice Cobb, said that Mr Justice Eyre, who had granted the interim injunction, made an “erroneous” decision not to let the Home Office be involved in the case.

Police outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, ahead of the ruling. PA

Reading a summary of their decision to quash the injunction, Lord Justice Bean said the Home Office had a “constitutional role relating to public safety” and was affected by the issues.

They concluded that the original judge "made a number of errors in principle", which undermined his decision.

He said: “The judge’s approach ignores the obvious consequence that the closure of one site means capacity needs to be identified elsewhere in the system.”

He added: “The potential cumulative impact of such ad-hoc applications was a material consideration… that was not considered by the judge.”

The decision could have thrown into chaos the system of accommodating asylum seekers, who continue to arrive in record numbers by small boat across the English Channel. Other councils have been weighing up similar legal action to that brought by Epping Forest District Council in the face of opposition among local communities to migrants being housed in their area.

Lisa Foster, of Richard Buxton Solicitors, which represents Somani Hotels, said it had been "caught in the middle of a much wider debate on the treatment of asylum seekers and respectfully ask that members of the public understand that the Bell Hotel has simply been providing a contracted service that the government requires".

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch claimed Prime Minister Keir Starmer “put the rights of illegal immigrants above the rights of British people”. She urged Conservative councillors seeking similar injunctions to “keep going”, despite the ruling.

Angela Eagle, the Minister for Border Security and Asylum said the government had appealed the judgment so that asylum seekers can be moved out of hotels in "a controlled and orderly way".

She said the number of hotels has almost halved since its peak in 2023 and the government has brought down costs by 15 per cent saving £700m and claimed it is on track to save a billion pounds a year by 2028-29.

In papers submitted to the court, lawyers said the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, represents the public interest for the entirety of the UK, whereas Epping Forest District Council represents local planning interests.

Edward Brown KC, for the Home Office, said the Court of Appeal should discharge that interim injunction and said it was “wrong” for Mr Justice Eyre not to allow Ms Cooper to intervene in the proceedings.

He argued that the decision “substantially interfered” with her legal obligation to house “very large numbers of, potentially, destitute asylum seekers”.

Mr Brown said the legal action taken by the council “was broadly speaking triggered by protests and arrests in the individual cases” and it had done nothing over the previous five years when asylum seekers had been housed there.

There are around 32,000 migrants in more than 200 UK hotels. The Labour government has promised to halt the use of such accommodation by the end of this parliament.

Other councils − including Labour-run authorities − have since publicly announced their intention to seek legal advice over whether they could achieve similar injunctions for hotels in their areas in the wake of similar protests to the ones in Epping.

Ahead of the decision government minister Stephen Kinnock warned against a “disorderly discharge” of migrants who could end up “living destitute in the streets”.

Pressed on where the migrants would be moved to if The Bell Hotel in Epping were to close, Mr Kinnock said: “We’ve got a whole range of options – disused warehouses, disused office blocks, disused military barracks.

Essex Police said there was a peaceful demonstration outside The Bell Hotel from around 5pm on Thursday, with a group marching to a local school before a section returned to the original protest site.

An order was in place giving officers the power to direct people to remove face coverings or face arrest, while there was also a designated area for the protest.

The mounting discontent over the use of asylum hotels is reflected in a recent poll that showed 71 per cent of voters believe Mr Starmer is handling the issue badly.

In contrast, the right-wing populist Reform party has seen its popularity surge on the back of promises to end small boat crossings to the UK and deporting 600,000 illegal migrants.