Councils in court over hotels housing asylum seekers

Lawyers for two councils have urged the High Court to block the Home Office's contractors from using large hotels to house asylum seekers, claiming the schemes break planning laws and harm communities.

Ipswich Borough Council and East Riding of Yorkshire Council say the hotels in their patches are being unlawfully converted into asylum seeker hostels, and they want them stopped by court injunctions.

But lawyers for both hotels said the councils could be causing greater harm to the public by increasing pressures elsewhere and scaring off other hotels from helping the government.

The 101-bed Novotel hotel in Ipswich, Suffolk and the Hull Humber View hotel in North Ferriby have agreed to take migrants while the Home Office assesses their applications to stay in the UK.

Around 37,000 asylum seekers are in hotels across the UK, according to the Home Office.

During Tuesday's hearing, barrister Gethin Thomas said both local authorities wanted injunctions and argued that the hotels were undergoing an unlawful change in use.

The four-star Novotel began to receive its first asylum seekers on 24 October and is no longer open to the public.

Mr Thomas told the court the Home Office had concluded two years ago that Novotel would not be appropriate for the accommodation scheme.

"One of the issues in Ipswich is the suitability of the location," he said.

"It is the biggest hotel in Ipswich town centre. For a scheme of this scale, the planning authority want time to discuss it. The scale of support for people in the hotel may not be enough."

Mr Thomas said the Hull Humber View hotel was also being unlawfully changed in use and that East Riding of Yorkshire Council had concerns about pressure on local services.

Questioning the councils, Mr Justice Holgate asked: "If the injunction is granted, then alternative accommodation will have to be provided. There is potential upheaval for asylum seekers. The effect of the injunction is to displace a problem, if there is a problem, elsewhere."

"It is a problem of the Home Office's making," replied Mr Thomas.

In written submissions to the court, lawyers for the two hotels argued that accommodating asylum seekers did not break planning law - and the councils were in fact causing harm.

"The council seeks the court's assistance to keep any further asylum seekers from the shelter and substance which the [Ipswich] hotel would provide," wrote Richard Kimblin KC.

"It is tolerably clear that the council does not want those people in its town.

"The council should be very careful to confine itself to planning purposes, not generalised concerns about asylum seekers, who are going to be accommodated in any event.

"This injunction will have a chilling effect on other hotel operators who will see the mess which they may be drawn into and thus decline to assist central government.

"In turn, the supply of hotel accommodation to those who are destitute, would be diminished."

Judgment has been reserved in the injunction applications brought by the councils. The judge gave no indication of when he would rule on the matter.