The Home Office is pushing ahead with plans to house asylum seekers in three more military bases, as the government shutters 20 hotels and claims the system is “more under control”. The sites – MOD Bicester in Oxfordshire, RAF Barnham in Suffolk and RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire – could accommodate about 3,750 people if planning permission is granted. The government also wants to extend the use of existing asylum sites at Crowborough in East Sussex until 2030 and Wethersfield in Essex beyond 2027. Wethersfield is being expanded to allow 1,200 more bed spaces.
The announcement came as the Home Office confirmed 20 more asylum hotels have been closed, reducing the number in use to around 170 – down from a peak of 400 in 2023. Border security and asylum minister Alex Norris said: “We are moving asylum seekers into ex-military sites that are a far cry from the hotels the last government left us with. This is a system being brought back under control – and we will not stop until the job is done.” The closure of these hotels, alongside a further 11 announced in April, will save taxpayers £170 million this financial year, according to the Home Office. Asylum costs as a whole have fallen by almost £1 billion.
“Home Office to use three more military bases for asylum seekers as 20 hotels close, saving £170m.”
But the use of military sites remains controversial. This week, a plan to house up to 300 male asylum seekers at Cameron Barracks in Inverness was dropped after local opposition. Lib Dem MP Angus MacDonald, who confirmed the decision, said: “This is the right outcome, and it is a result of the strength of feeling shown by residents, and by the military families connected to Cameron Barracks who made their concerns heard from the very start.” He added: “The sense of closing asylum hotels in town centres in the South of England while opening an Inverness asylum barracks similarly poorly located defied logic.”
Campaign groups have warned that military sites are unsuitable. The British Red Cross said barracks “are often in isolated locations and, by their very nature, can retraumatise people who have fled conflict and persecution.” Sam Turner, the charity’s director of migration and displacement, said: “It’s clear that housing people seeking asylum in hotels isn’t working well for anyone, but any alternative accommodation must enable people to live in safety and dignity.” The Refugee Council’s director of external affairs, Imran Hussein, argued the government could lower costs by “housing people in communities and improving Home Office decision-making”.
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Labour “should be putting illegal immigrants on a plane home rather than messing around with military camps and hotels”. He said Labour “will not do what is needed to tear down the barriers to deportation, and without deportation, there is no deterrent.”
The government’s move comes as the total number of asylum applications fell by 12% compared to the previous year. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “In the first two years of this government, we have made really important progress on immigration… Fewer crossings mean there are less people that need to be housed.” He added: “The ambition is to close those asylum hotels, reduce those channel crossings. Nobody should be making that crossing.” Next week, the government is expected to introduce immigration reforms in Parliament, with Shabana Mahmood set to publish new legislation removing obstacles to deportations.