Newark MP and Immigration minister announces 50 hotels to stop housing migrants
Migrants will instead be moved to alternative accommodation - like disused military bases and barges - to cut costs
Immigration Minister and MP for Newark Robert Jenrick has announced the number of hotels used to house migrants will be cut by 50 over the next three months.
Mr Jenrick told MPs the process of "exiting" the first tranche of accommodation will begin in the coming days.
In a statement to the Commons, he said the plans are possible because of "the progress we've made to stop the boats."
But his opposite number, Stephen Kinnock, said the announcement demonstrates the Government's "utter lack of ambition" as the number amounts to a "paltry" 12% of total usage.
Mr Jenrick said on Tuesday:
"I can inform the House that today the Home Office wrote to local authorities and MPs to inform them that we will now be exiting the first asylum hotels, hotels in all four nations of the UK.
"The first 50 of these exits will begin in the coming days and will be complete by the end of January with more tranches to follow shortly, but we will not stop there.
"We will continue to deliver on our strategy to stop the boats and we will be able to exit more hotels. And as we exit these hotels, we are putting in place dedicated resource to facilitate the orderly and effective management of this process and limit the impact on local communities."
In March, the Government introduced plans to house asylum seekers on disused military bases and barges in a bid to cut spending on hotels, which has hit ÂŁ8 million a day.
That month, around 47,500 people were using hotel accommodation, according to the House of Commons Library.
Some migrants have been moved back on to the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, after the discovery of Legionella bacteria in its water supply led to an evacuation in August.
Mr Jenrick said occupancy on the 500-person-capacity vessel had reached approximately 50 individuals on October 23.
Another Government plan announced in April 2022, under which some asylum seekers would be sent to Rwanda, is currently held up in the courts, with a deportation flight yet to take off.
Shadow immigration minister Mr Kinnock accused Mr Jenrick of having the "brass neck" to announce not that the Government had cut the number of hotels, but that it "simply plans to, and by a paltry 12%".
He also questioned whether the hotels selected for the first tranche of "exiting" are located in marginal seats, as some reports have previously suggested.
"Does he really think the public might not see through that ruse?" Mr Kinnock said, asking whether the Government will publish a list naming the 50 hotels.
"He sounds like an arsonist who's burned our house down and is expecting us to thank him for throwing a bucket of water on it."
Mr Kinnock pointed to the weather in accusing the Conservatives of performing poorly in their bid to stop boat crossings in the Channel, saying the journeys are continuing despite the 2023 summer having been the "wettest since 1912".
Mr Jenrick joked in his reply: "Every time I come to this chamber it's about the weather. The honourable gentleman is becoming the Michael Fish of British politics - he always gets the forecast wrong."
The Refugee Council warned that cutting the number of hotels could be a factor in what it described as a developing "homelessness crisis" among migrants.
Chief executive Enver Solomon said: "The cost and chaos of an asylum backlog that has spiralled out of control is a result of gross Government failure leaving people in limbo for years on end.
"In closing hotels we are now seeing a homelessness crisis developing with newly recognised refugees being given as little as seven days before they are evicted from accommodation.
"Instead of being a moment of celebration, receiving refugee status is, for far too many, currently a ticket to homelessness with the cost being passed on to councils."