Asylum sites to be expanded as ministers bid to end hotel use

Large asylum seeker sites like Wethersfield air base in Essex are set to be expanded under plans to end the use of asylum hotels, the BBC can reveal.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged to stop using taxpayer-funded hotels by 2029 in her Spending Review, saying this would save £1bn.

One of the ways the Home Office hopes to achieve this is by moving asylum seekers from hotels into cheaper alternative forms of accommodation.

Sir Keir Starmer pledged to close the Wethersfield asylum facility during last year’s election campaign, but the BBC understands that site and another in Huddersfield are among those under consideration for extensions.

A Home Office spokesperson said the government was “making strong strides to deliver a more sustainable and cost-effective asylum accommodation system”.

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