Bracknell Forest Council has clarified why it is calling a hotel used to house Afghans as ‘transitional accommodation’ and why it is wrong to call the people staying there asylum seekers.
The Grange Hotel in the town centre was closed to the public after around two decades in December 2022.
It is now widely known that the former hotel is being used to house nearly 200 people from Afghanistan.
All of the people who are staying there should not be referred to as asylum seekers, as they all arrived in the country via legal routes.
Mary Temperton (Labour, Great Hollands), the leader of Bracknell Forest Council, said: “We have been following the Epping case very carefully and have taken a full and thorough review of what it means for us locally, both in terms of planning and legal implications.
“Firstly, we’d like to make it clear that Bracknell Forest does not have any migrant hotels in the borough housing asylum seekers. We have transition accommodation run by the Ministry of Defence that is currently home to 194 Afghan people in family groups – they have indefinite leave to remain, so are not asylum seekers, refugees or illegal immigrants.
“Therefore, we will not be seeking an injunction to prevent use as a migrant hotel in Bracknell Forest as we do not have a migrant hotel in the borough.”
There have been questions over whether the government required planning permission before moving the Afghan families into the hotel.
Answering those, a council spokesperson said: “The transition accommodation has relevant planning permission as a hotel, called a Class C1 use. The building obtained this permission many years ago.
“This allows for the building to be used as a hotel, guest house, boarding lodge or similar. If a building changes its name or ownership, but not its use, then a new planning permission does not need to be sought.
“If the building was being used as a nursing home, hospital, or other facility where regular and continuous care is provided, then a change of use would need to be applied for.
“The council has taken detailed legal advice on if a change of use is needed, both before the guests arrived and when the original Epping District Council High Court interim injunction was made, and both times the advice has been that no change of use is needed.”
Afghans have legally arrived in the UK through a variety of government resettlement schemes.
All the beneficiaries of these schemes arrived legally, in the same way Hong Kongers and Ukrainians have through similar legal pathways.
That sets those in the Grange Hotel apart from asylum seekers who arrive in an irregular fashion and unannounced into the country.
Those who are understood to have a legitimate claim will be allowed to stay in temporary accommodation facilitated by the Home Office.
These claims are then tested for their validity by Home Office officials, who either grant permission to remain in the UK or refuse it, and are then sent to detention centres for deportation.
In the 2024/25 year ending in March, there were 9,838 asylum-related returns, a 29 per cent increase from the previous year.
That means a person who had no valid claim to asylum was returned to their home country.
The issue is complicated by the fact that Afghans have both used legal routes to enter and irregular methods such as unauthorised Channel crossings.
