'We feel lied to': fury in Shropshire village as 21 newbuild homes become 'Migrant Street' for asylum seekers

The first family has already moved in. Over the coming weeks, more than 80 asylum seekers are expected to follow – into 21 brand-new £250,000 homes on a housing estate in the Shropshire village of Stoke Heath. Residents say they were promised social housing. Instead, they got what one local called a “completely inappropriate” migrant settlement. The Home Office initiative, designed to reduce the use of asylum hotels, has ignited a furious backlash from villagers and MPs alike. Mark Pritchard, the local Tory MP, told The Sun: “Stoke Heath is an isolated rural location with very few public services. This is the wrong location and at the wrong scale. I will fight these ill-conceived plans all the way.” Shropshire council has written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to “raise our strong concerns about this location and are awaiting a response before considering any further action”. John-Paul Campion, West Mercia’s police and crime commissioner, called the plan “wholly inappropriate”. For residents, the anger is personal. Emma O’Sullivan, 30, who lives nearby, told The Sun: “We were told that the new development would be social houses, which was fine, but no one moved in for a year. Now we’re told they will be used for asylum seekers and they’re not part of the social housing at all. We feel like we’ve been lied to.” She added: “I’ve got three teenage girls and we’re really worried. It’s not who they are, it’s how many there are. It’ll overload the infrastructure. There are only two primary schools in the area so if they’re all families that’s going to flood the primary schools. It’s just: ‘They’re here, put up with them.’” John “Basil” Brockhurst, an Army veteran, argued the new housing should go to people on the poverty line. “To me there’s a lot more people that need brand new housing rather than people who make out they come from far away countries,” he said. Serco, the outsourcing company responsible for housing asylum seekers and migrants in the West Midlands, said: “We work under the direction of the Home Office, who decide where people are placed, based on overall national demand. The Home Office determines how many people are to be accommodated in each local authority area and instructs us accordingly.” The move in Stoke Heath is part of a wider push: last week ministers announced plans to turn three more former military bases into asylum camps, bringing the total to five. As of March, 20,885 asylum seekers were in hotel rooms – down 30 per cent in three months – while 72,768 were in other accommodation such as houses in multiple occupation and military camps, awaiting decisions on their claims. Mahmood has pledged to close the hotels. But in Stoke Heath, the new homes have already opened a fresh fault line.