The government has been accused of not properly consulting local authorities about its plan to house asylum seekers in former military barracks, with a local MP claiming he was only told about the plans in a ten minute phone call on Thursday afternoon.
On Friday, the Home Office announced that planning permission is being sought at Ministry of Defence sites in Bicester in Oxfordshire, Barnham in Suffolk, and Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, to accommodate 3,750 asylum seekers.
But Liberal Democrat MP for Bicester and Woodstock Calum Miller accused the government of failing to conduct a proper consultation with local communities, dubbing it “extraordinary”.
He told BBC Radio 4: “I received a phone call from a Home Office minister at about 2 o’clock yesterday afternoon.”
Asked whether that is later than he would have liked to be informed, he said: “I think it’s extraordinary. I heard on your news bulletin just now that the Home Office is saying that discussions have started. Well, if that phone call, which lasted about 10 minutes, was the start of discussions, that’s really no way to consult local community about a very serious proposal.
“And I know that the local authorities only received letters from the government late yesterday afternoon, so I really worry that this is a government looking for political headlines as it looks to a change in its own leadership rather than one that’s serious about grappling with what is a very important problem.”
But Home Office sources said Mr Miller’s claims are “not true at all”, insisting that engagement is ongoing with local authorities and local MPs. They pointed out that a primary aim of a planning process is to consult with local communities.
Mr Miller questioned “why the government thinks it’s possible to put 12,150 asylum seekers into a community where the nearest village numbers 370 people.”
“It’s a remote location”, Mr Miller explained. “There is not even a pavement along a B-road that runs next to it. The nearest shop is two miles away. The nearest town is Bicester, which is five miles away.
“I have literally no idea how the government thinks that that can be absorbed into the community, and that both the community and those living on this site can be safe for a period of time when those asylum seekers are going to have very little to do in their days and very little money to spend.
“The government has come to this with no credible plan as to how it will manage that site, nor how it will maintain social cohesion, as we’ve seen across the country.”
Justice minister Jake Richards acknowledged the government would face local opposition but said the action was necessary to end the use of hotels for housing asylum seekers, insisting ministers would do “whatever it takes”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “The military sites that we are proposing to use… are large sites, they are more contained.
“I understand there will always be opposition to such proposals as we’re setting out today.”
But he added: “Ultimately the question for politicians, when you’re in government, is what are your priorities?
“And we made a promise to the British people that we would close these hotels, which have caused so much angst, so much anxiety, and so much pain across the country and we will do that.
“Now that might mean difficult decisions, but we will do as the Home Secretary has said, whatever it takes to close these hotels, get a grip of our borders, and fix the asylum system and we will do that.”
It appears the Home Office is trying to revive efforts to use the disused RAF base in a small village near York after it was forced to abandon the plan in 2022 to house up to 1,500 asylum seekers there in the face of opposition from local people and a council legal challenge.
The government is now also looking to expand the use of existing sites in Crowborough in East Sussex until 2030 and Wethersfield in Essex beyond 2027.
Labour pledged to stop using asylum hotels by the next election.
The number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels has fallen to its lowest level since data was first reported in 2022, according to Home Office figures published last month.
There were 20,885 people staying in such accommodation while they were awaiting a decision on their asylum claims at the end of March, down 35 per cent year on year from 32,326.
The total had climbed as high as 56,018 at the end of September 2023.
The issue of people being housed in hotels came to the fore last year with protests outside some sites.
On Thursday, the Home Office said 20 more hotels have now been closed.
The Refugee Council’s Imran Hussain said: “Moving refugees from unsuitable hotels to unsuitable former military sites is storing up problems for the next prime minister by repeating policies that failed in the recent past. It would be wise to rethink this approach.”
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
