Overview
- The Home Office closed 11 asylum hotels, returning properties in places including Bangor, Wolverhampton, Halifax, Aberdeen and at Heathrow to commercial use.
- Officials say the closures will save about £65 million a year and reduce the number of hotels in use to roughly 185 from a peak near 400.
- About 10,000 people have been moved out of hotels this year, leaving around 20,800 still in hotels, according to the latest Home Office figures.
- Many people are being relocated to larger, more basic sites and shared housing, including about 350 now at the Crowborough military barracks in East Sussex.
- Further changes are in train, with Blackpool’s Metropole hotel set to end asylum use by July as residents are moved in a managed transition to other accommodation.