Politics
Closing asylum hotels: What will the policy mean in practice?
Ali Ahmadi, Catherine Barnard and Fiona Costello look at the implications of the Labour governmen’s promise to close all asylum hotels.
The UK government has committed itself to closing all asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament. It aims to discontinue the use of contingency hotels and rely instead on other asylum accommodation such as Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs) and family houses, as well as investigating the further use of ‘large sites’ such as ‘modular buildings’ and former military bases like Wethersfield in Essex and Cameron Barracks in Inverness. This policy is intended to save taxpayer money and improve the suitability of accommodation. But what does this transition mean in practice given the housing shortage in England? And what are the implications for local authorities, support organisations, local communities, and asylum seekers themselves?
Under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, the Home Office is responsible for housing destitute asylum seekers. Between 2012 and 2019, this was delivered through six regional contracts known as COMPASS. In 2019, COMPASS was replaced with seven similar arrangements, the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts (AASCs). These contracts were awarded to three providers: Clearsprings Ready Homes, Mears Group, and Serco. Under these contracts, asylum seekers are dispersed on a ‘no-choice’ basis to areas where accommodation is cheap and available which has meant that dispersals have been concentrated in deprived (and thus low-cost) areas.
For instance, the Guardian’s analysis of Home Office data in 2016 showed that 57% of asylum seekers were housed in the poorest third of the country while the richest third housed only 10% of asylum seekers. The distribution has also been uneven across local authorities, with some accommodating none (e.g. Lincoln, Cambridge, North Norfolk, Great Yarmouth, West Suffolk) and some having more than one asylum seeker per 200 local residents (e.g. Hounslow, Halton, Belfast, Coventry), exceeding the limit set by the original dispersal policy.
In 2022, the Home Office announced the policy of ‘Full Dispersal’, distributing asylum seekers more equitably across all local authorities, requiring the providers to use an indexing tool to procure accommodation, taking into account factors beyond population size such as market availability, homelessness rate, and level of hate crimes. This has had some success. For instance, in 2014, 75% of local authorities (285 out of 375) hosted no asylum seekers while in March 2025 just 16% (59 out of 361) hosted none.
However, significant disparities remain, with asylum seekers clustered in certain deprived areas such as Glasgow in Scotland and Halton in the North-West. A Parliamentary inquiry found that providers intentionally avoid procuring dispersal housing in more expensive urban areas to maximise profit. These local authorities face significant pressure on services like schools, healthcare, and homelessness support. The Home Office provides an ‘asylum dispersal grant’ to local authorities (currently £1,200 per asylum seeker per year) but this is not sufficient to meet the full costs.
While the Home Office tried to use local housing in the dispersal areas, it was not able to provide enough such housing and so it increasingly turned to using contingency hotels, especially at the time of the pandemic and now due to asylum backlogs. At the end of March 2020, only 5% of asylum seekers were staying in contingency accommodation (mostly hotels), but by 31 March 2025, this figure rose to 35% (over 32,000 people). Asylum hotels are significantly more costly than other forms of dispersal accommodation. In 2024-25, they accounted for more than half of asylum support cost (£2.1 billion out of £4 billion). Despite the high costs, hotels are reported to be in poor condition. Asylum hotels have also been the subject of community tensions, most notably in Epping in Essex and Norwich in Norfolk. For these reasons, the government plans to end their use.
For asylum seekers, hotel closure means moving to dispersal accommodation or ‘large sites’, often in rural areas far from urban centres. This often means they lose access to support services. For example, third sector organisations that provide legal assistance, mental health and integration support are primarily based in urban areas. They may not have the resources to reach asylum seekers who are located in rural areas. One refugee support organisation in the East of England talked of the difficulty of reaching asylum seekers in rural dispersal accommodation: “[From] Lowestoft to Haverhill, opposite corners of the county, is about 75 miles apart, which with a small team is quite a challenge.”
They also said that availability of services, support, and public transport (in rural dispersal areas) is not a factor in the Home Office’s dispersal index/formula: “….if you’re lucky, the village will have one bus a day that goes to a nearby town…. Some may not have that. So, no, Serco don’t take any of that into account. You know, local school places… don’t take into account if it’s families. Provision of service and culturally appropriate services, not at all.” This affects the lives of the individuals: there are multiple reports of serious mental health crises at Weathersfield. In the first three months of 2024, there were 30 recorded occurrences of men self-harming, attempting suicide, or at serious risk of doing so, and over 160 safeguarding referrals made regarding suicide and self-harm.
It is also not clear whether the government will make any cost saving. Evidence suggests that the use of large sites may, in fact, be more expensive than hotels. The Home Office estimates that Wethersfield costs around £132 per person per night compared to hotels at £144.98. However, these estimates exclude the £105 million in acquisition, lease, and setup costs. A Parliamentary inquiry found that ‘large sites’ attract considerably more public attention, complaints, and media coverage than smaller sites. There are also added policing costs.
To conclude, closing asylum hotels may redistribute costs and pressures rather than reducing them, let alone eliminating them. Local authorities, voluntary organisations, and asylum seekers themselves are likely to bear much of the burden. Dispersal accommodation and ‘large sites’ can work only if they are accompanied by sustained investment in local services, support, and community engagement. There is currently little evidence of this.
By Ali Ahmadi, Research Associate, University of Cambridge and PhD student at Anglia Ruskin University, Catherine Barnard, Senior Fellow, UK in a Changing Europe & Professor of EU Law and Employment Law, University of Cambridge and Fiona Costello, Assistant Professor, University of Birmingham.
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A Lib Dem councillor was left stunned after being asked by Reform UK to stand for the party at the local elections in May.
Sam Webber, who sits on Bromley Council in south east London, was phoned out of the blue by the party’s membership team and asked if he wanted to be a “paper candidate” on May 7.
A paper candidate is someone whose name goes on the ballot representing a party but is not expected to win or do any campaigning.
Speaking to HuffPost UK, Webber accused Nigel Farage’s party of “making a mockery of the election nomination process”.
He said: “Is Reform just randomly calling up people across the country and asking them to stand for election?
“Nominations open in five days time. How much vetting will the party be doing on their candidates in that time? This runs the risk people getting nominated who would be ineligible to serve even if they were elected.
“That would see costly and unnecessary by-elections having to take place after May 7, as we saw after the 2025 local elections.
“Reform UK is making a mockery of the election nomination process. As we have seen in authorities like Kent County Council, it would be total chaos if the party gets anywhere near power. I suspect voters will not like being taken for fools.”
Reform has been contacted for comment.
A staggering 65 Reform councillors who were elected at last May’s local elections have since either resigned as councillors, defected or quit the party.
Egyptian star Mohamed Salah has announced he will be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season, bringing to a close one of the greatest eras in the club’s history and a golden age in the Premier League.
Mohamed Salah is not just a departing player; he represents the end of an exceptional career that has inspired the club and fans worldwide.
Unprecedented
When Salah arrived at Anfield in the summer of 2017 from Roma for around $50 million, it seemed like just another big-money move. But the next few years proved that the club hadn’t signed an ordinary player, but an unprecedented football phenomenon.
His journey to the top wasn’t easy. He had a disappointing spell at Chelsea before rediscovering his form in Italy and returning to England as a more complete player, finding in Jürgen Klopp’s project the perfect environment to flourish.
From his very first season, Salah established himself as a formidable attacking force, scoring 44 goals and announcing the birth of the ‘Egyptian King.’
During his nine seasons with Liverpool, he scored 255 goals in 435 appearances, placing him third on the club’s all-time top scorers list. He also contributed 281 goals in the Premier League, the most by any player for a single club. He won the Golden Boot four times, equaling Thierry Henry’s record, confirming his dominance and consistent goal-scoring prowess.
His impact wasn’t limited to individual statistics; it extended to major titles. He was instrumental in Liverpool’s triumphs, securing eight significant trophies: two Premier League titles, a Champions League title, an FA Cup, two League Cups, a Club World Cup, and a UEFA Super Cup. The highlight of his career was winning the Champions League in 2019, following the heartbreak of the 2018 Kyiv final, when he scored in the final against Tottenham and led the team to European glory.
An enduring legacy
Salah’s impact wasn’t limited to the pitch; it extended to the human dimension as well. He went through difficult times, most notably the death of his teammate Diogo Jota, and witnessed some tensions within the team, but the relationship between the player and the club remained based on respect and achievement.
When Mohamed Salah leaves, it’s not just a goal-scoring player who departs, but an entire chapter in the club’s modern history closes. A player who transformed Liverpool, inspired fans around the world, and etched his name in gold. The legacy of the “Egyptian King” will live on, etched in the memory of Anfield and in the heart of every fan, forever. Mohamed Salah was more than just a goalscorer; he wass an entire era in Liverpool’s history.
Salah’s extensive achievements with Liverpool
• Most Premier League goals by an African player: 189
• Most assists by an African player: 92
• Most Premier League goals as a winger: 190
• Most Premier League goals with his left foot: 152
• Most goal contributions in a 38-game season: 47
• Most goals in a single season with Liverpool: 44
• Most goal contributions against Manchester United: 19
• Most goal contributions in a single month: 14
• Most goal contributions for a single club: 281
• Premier League Golden Boot: 4 times
• Player of the Month: 7 times
• More Liverpool’s Premier League goals: 189
• Most Champions League goals for an English club: 45
• Liverpool’s all-time Champions League top scorer: 50
• First player to have over 40 goal contributions in two seasons
• First player to have 10+ goal contributions in three months
• Only player to score a hat-trick at Old Trafford
Featured image via the Canary
The Socialist Party has announced today that it will be standing in the Senedd elections under the banner of the Welsh Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).
The candidates are standing to make the case for trade unions taking the lead in forming a new workers’ party. This is to address what the party calls “the crisis in working-class political representation.”
The Socialist Party says that its candidates are proven campaigners in their workplaces and communities. Its key policies are “democratic public ownership; a future for young people without debt, war or climate disaster; and a united fight for jobs, homes and services to combat racism and division.”
Ben Golightly and Mark Evans
In Gŵyr Abertawe, the lead candidate is Ben Golightly, one of the elected coordinators for Disabled People Against Cuts Cymru, a high-profile campaign fighting disability cuts.
Joining him on the TUSC party list for Swansea & Gower is Mark Evans, a long-standing Unison trade unionist, and Secretary of Swansea & District Trades Council. Mark has been a consistent campaigner against local government job cuts, council tax increases, and cuts to services.
The party is also standing three candidates in Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf.
John Williams
John Williams is a hospitality worker, LGBT+ activist, and chair of the Cardiff general branch of Unite the Union.
He says he is “proud to have supported striking workers across Cardiff and South Wales, including ambulance staff, nurses, and bin workers. I’m proud also to have stood shoulder to shoulder with reps facing anti-union tactics from Cardiff Council, and of my work bringing trade union solidarity to Trans Day of Remembrance and Trans Pride.”
Helen Perriam
Helen Perriam is a nurse at Llandough Hospital. She is a Unison member and trade union campaigner.
She says she has “seen first hand what Labour and Tory cuts and privatisation have done to our NHS” and “will stand up in the Senedd to fight every cut and speak up passionately for more resources to allow nurses and health workers to provide the services we need.”
Dave Bartlett
Dave Bartlett is secretary of Cardiff Trades Union Council and a leader in the campaign that saved health facilities at Cardiff Royal Infirmary.
He says that “campaigning in our communities isn’t enough, we need a voice for the working class in the Senedd. It is time for the trade unions to end the funding of Labour and to form a mass new workers’ party instead.”
Wage Pledge
All Welsh Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidates have pledged that, if elected, they would forgo the full £76,380 Senedd member salary, and take home only a worker’s wage.
The coalition is also standing nearly 200 candidates in the English council elections.
Starmer’s worst performance in a long time, and the bar is low. There is always a “process” that stops him doing anything. Always another ‘review’. Is he aware he lives in Number 10?
Politics
Revolut Banking Licence Saga Exposes Painful Negativity of UK Regulators and Business Media – Guido Fawkes
Fintech company Revolut was finally granted a full UK banking licence earlier this month. The app-based company has been used in the UK for years and has 13 million British customers…
The length of time it took to get the regulatory approval has been cited as another example of the UK’s sclerotic processes – it is more than four years since Revolut first applied for a licence. The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority repeatedly extended Revolut’s approval timelines…
Reform’s Richard Tice is among the politicians who have called the process “absurd”. Another take is available in the FT this morning, where the influential Lex column urges Revolut to “move slowly” with its ambitions to become a full bank in Britain, even though it has just been granted a licence. With regulators and a financial media like that, it’s a miracle the approval didn’t take a decade…
Sports nutritionist Itziar González has reignited controversy within Real Madrid, amid escalating criticism directed at the club’s medical staff regarding their handling of French star Kylian Mbappe’s injury.
Spanish journalist Miguel Ángel Díaz alleged that:
Real Madrid, in their initial diagnosis, got the knee wrong. Instead of examining Mbappé’s left knee, they examined his right.
According to Díaz, this meant Mbappe played football when he should have been resting, potentially aggravating the injury.
Mbappe injury storm
González – who no longer works for Real Madrid – ignited a media firestorm after González intervened, asserting on her Instagram account that some of the medical staff’s decisions were based on free artificial intelligence programs, a direct reference to ChatGPT. She considered this evidence of a lack of professional standards within the club’s medical system.
A translation of her remarks asks whether scanning the wrong knee is worse than the alleged use of ChatGPT:
Although I don’t know what’s worse: this, or them prescribing supplements based on free Chat-GPT.
The conflict between González and Real Madrid’s management is not new. She has clashed repeatedly with the doctors throughout her tenure, due to her insistence on a central role for nutrition in injury treatment, rather than simply preparing meals.
According to the website Espana, these tensions culminated in her dismissal, before she later resorted to legal action last December, a move aimed – according to those close to her – at exposing what she describes as “internal dysfunctions.”
In scathing remarks, González addressed Mbappé directly, saying, “we hope to find competent and well-trained people, instead of ignorant narcissists who obtained their positions through connections,” adding that some employees “remain in their positions despite the damage they cause.”
However, Mbappe has distanced himself from the rumours and furore:
My knee is fine. It’s getting better.
It’s going quite well, and I know there’s been a lot of speculation about it and some false things have been said.
It’s the life of a top athlete, and we’re used to people saying things without verifying them or having any basis in fact.
Featured image via the Canary
Duffy has announced she’ll tell her story for the first time in a new documentary.
The chart-topping singer winner became a household name in the late 2000s thanks to her hits Mercy and Warwick Avenue, taken from her Brit Award– and Grammy-winning album Rockferry.
In the years that followed, she took a major step back from the limelight, and in 2020, she disclosed that she had been “raped and drugged and held captive over some days” a decade earlier, leading to her withdrawing from public life.
Six years after coming forward with her story, it’s been announced that Duffy will be the subject of a new Disney+ documentary about her experiences.
An official press release teased: “Documenting her life in this way for the first time, the documentary will be a retrospective film traversing Duffy’s life, from her upbringing in Wales, through to her meteoric rise to fame and her withdrawal from public life following her unfathomable experience.
“The original documentary film will be driven by new, unprecedented access to Duffy, along with a rich and nostalgic archive, and interviews with family, friends, and close peers in the music industry.”
Streaming platform Disney+’s vice president of unscripted content, Sean Doyle, said in a statement: “This film will give Duffy the chance to tell her story in her own words. I am grateful to our collaborators at Rare TV for this unprecedented access, along with Stellify Media for handling this project with sensitivity and care.
“We set out in a search for impactful, female-led stories in collaboration with Northern Ireland Screen, and it’s a privilege that Duffy’s is the first we’re able to help tell. But above all, I’m especially in awe of Duffy – for her honesty and courage to share her story.”
Last year, it was reported that the Welsh performer had been privately working on new music, which would mark her first major release since the release of her second album Endlessly in 2010.
Her last top 40 was in 2008, when she released the single Rain On Your Parade from a repackaged version of her Rockferry album.
Help and support:
- Rape Crisis services for women and girls who have been raped or have experienced sexual violence – 0808 802 9999
- Survivors UK offers support for men and boys – 0203 598 3898
It turns out that tiny changes – minutes more exercise, a few grams more veggies – can make a surprisingly large difference to your longevity and heart attack risk.
And Dr Dominic Greenyer, a private GP at The Health Suite, said that those lifestyle changes become medically obvious in time.
“If you followed two twins over time, you would often see clear differences in their skin, body composition, energy levels and overall health depending on how they live,” Dr Greenyer said.
“Ageing is not just about time passing. It’s about how well the body is maintained.”
Here, he shared the five factors he feels make all the difference:
1) Building and maintaining muscle
As we age, our muscles begin to wane – a process called sarcopenia. If we do nothing to maintain or build it, some research says we’re expected to lose half our muscle mass by 80.
“One of the biggest predictors of healthy ageing is muscle mass,” Dr Greenyer said.
2) Prioritising sleep and recovery
“Chronic poor sleep can accelerate ageing at a cellular level,” Dr Greenyer said.
“It affects hormones, recovery, inflammation and even visible signs like skin quality.”
Experts think that following a “7-1” sleeping rule (getting at least seven hours of sleep a night, with no more than an hour’s variance between bedtimes and wake-up times) could add years to your life.
3) Reducing inflammation through lifestyle choices
In and of itself, inflammation isn’t a problem – it can help our bodies to heal and may be an important part of muscle growth.
But “inflammaging” can occur when inflammation is chronic, and might contribute to conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia, and frailty.
It “is influenced by diet, stress, alcohol intake and overall lifestyle,” Dr Greenyer said.
Those who eat whole foods, stay active, and manage stress well may have less unwanted inflammation, he added.
4) Enjoy life, in moderation
There’s lots of research to support the idea that enjoying ourselves – be it through socialising or even eating some candy – might help us to live longer.
“There is good evidence that polyphenol-rich foods such as dark chocolate can support cardiovascular health when consumed in moderation,” Dr Greenyer added. “Just as important is maintaining strong social connections, which are consistently associated with longer lifespan and better mental wellbeing.”
He ended, “The difference comes from small choices repeated over years – but they should still allow you to enjoy life.”
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