On Wednesday, December 7, at the council’s executive committee meeting, leader Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab, Symonds Green) told her colleagues that the Home Office informed the council of their plans on Saturday, December 3. The baroness said the council recognises it has a “shared obligation” to house people fleeing “horrible situations” in other parts of the world, but she added that the Home Office did not give the council and its partners enough time to ensure the safety of migrants or the community. In addition to the 183 asylum seekers housed at a hotel off the A1, a total of 178 asylum seekers are being housed in the town centre location near the Westgate Shopping Centre (M). The asylum system is under “incredible strain,” according to a Home Office spokesperson, who added that they cannot comment on operational arrangements for individual sites, including hotels, used for accommodation. According to Baroness Taylor: “Officers and I do not believe the use of [the hotel] is acceptable, nor do members or I am sure our community, and we are concerned that it will pose significant challenges for public-sector providers, local communities, and those accommodated.

Lord Taylor of Stevenage “We are already seeing very stretched public services like education, health, and social care being placed under more strain due to the increasing use of contingency hotels within our county and across the country by the Home Offices,” Baroness Taylor said, adding that there had been no time to arrange appropriate health screening and safety measures, and that the decision threatens to undo three to four decades of work “work to foster community cohesion “We recognise the importance of a safe environment, provision of services and support, and efforts to settle and integrate those who have a right to remain,” she added. Baroness Taylor said the Home Office had promised to use the hotel for nearly two weeks – until December 16. She also stated that the Home Office and the hotel signed a spot-booking agreement in mid-November without informing any members of parliament, councillors, or council officers. “The inappropriate use of hotels has become the government’s only option because of their complete chaotic failure to address this issue in previous years – even when they knew the number of asylum seekers was accelerating – a lack of long-term planning to move asylum seekers into long-term accommodation, and a complete failure in managing the application process,” said Baroness Taylor. According to a House of Commons report released on Monday (December 5) the UK government received 52,525 asylum applications in the fiscal year ending September 2022. The all-time high is 84,132 applications in 2002, with a twenty-year low in 2010 (17,916) before rising again to 35,737 in 2019 and 50,042 in 2021.