Yuan Yang MP has called on the government to provide an update for the closure of hotels being used to house asylum seekers.
During business questions in the House of Commons on Thursday morning (October 23), Ms Yang, the member of parliament for Earley and Woodley, described the current asylum system as “untenable”, and asked the leader of the house to update MPs on the government’s plan to close all hotels being used in the asylum process.
Ms Yang said: “ I have heard from local residents as well as local refugee charities in Reading who are all calling for the use of hotels to house asylum seekers to end as soon as possible.
“This practice began five years ago as a result of the previous government’s irresponsible buildup on the backlog of claims.
“May I ask the leader of the house to set aside time for the government to update us on the progress it has already made to speed up claims processing, as well as to set out a timeline for closing down asylum hotels, such as the one in my constituency?”
Sir Alan Campbell MP, lord president of the council and leader of the house of commons, replied: “We inherited a broken system. We are working as fast as we can to close all asylum hotels as quickly as is practical. We have already halved the number already open.”
There are currently 210 active hotels being used to house asylum seekers in the country. The government aims to close all of them by 2029.
At the height of asylum hotel use under the last Conservative Government, there were over 400 hotels in operation, at a cost of almost £9 million a day.
The use of hotels started in 2020 under the previous government. It persisted in part due to their decisions to stop processing claims for arrivals after March 2023.
Since July 2024, the number of decisions reached on asylum cases has doubled, and the removal of failed asylum seekers has increased by 30%..
