Asylum hotel closures may shift cost to councils, councillors warn

Asylum seekers moved out of government-funded hotels may be put back into the same hotels with costs "shunted" to local taxpayers because of councils' legal obligations, councillors warn.

The Local Government Association (LGA) say this cost may pass to councils, who are required to house refugees in need.

Shaun Davies, head of the LGA, said councils were legally obliged to find somewhere to stay for the large numbers of refugees representing as homeless after leaving hotel accommodation when their asylum application was processed.

"We've got a housing shortage, we've got a huge demand on temporary accommodation, and we've got councils in financial strain," Mr Davies, who is also a Labour councillor, said.

Mr Davies questioned where local governments were supposed to house refugees once they became councils' responsibilities.

While hotels were not a "long-term solution" for housing refugees, Mr Davies said the question had to be, "If not those hotels, then where?"

"That's the irony in this situation, that one part of the system might boast that they're doing relatively well but actually, that's shunting the issue and the cost to local taxpayers," he said.

About 400 hotels are being used to house record numbers of asylum seekers, the BBC understands.

The use of hotels has increased exponentially as the number of people claiming asylum in the UK has increased, reaching a near 20-year high of 74,751 last year, according to Home Office data.

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said agreements with France and Albania along with stricter penalties for those connected to illegal migration had helped reduce the numbers arriving in small boats, enabling the government to start ending the use of asylum hotels.

He added the government would continue to house people on the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland. The vessel, which has a capacity of 500, is currently holding 50 people.

During his House of Commons statement, Mr Jenrick tried to reassure local authorities that the government would "limit the impact on local communities".

But Mr Davies said he was frustrated that the government had not seen the LGA as "a key stakeholder or consultee" in the build-up to yesterday's announcement.

He called on the government to publish the list of the 50 hotels that would be wound down and provide further funding for councils struggling to cope with the pressure.

Mr Davies said: "The deep irony is that it might be the same hotels that the government are looking to close down for their purposes, are the very same hotels that local authorities will have to stand up and fund for temporary accommodation."

Asylum seekers being granted refugee status, Afghan refugees coming to the UK from third countries and Ukrainian refugees who were previously paired with hosts could all be turning to their local authorities for help, Mr Davies said.

"There's also a huge amount of demand in the system from people who live in local communities because of the cost-of-living crisis, but also because of changes within the private sector itself," he said.

"So, councils are seeing huge demands, the highest levels of demand on temporary accommodation since records began at a time when council finances are stretched."