Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many illegal migrants are due to be rehoused from hotels to other forms of accommodation in (a) the United Kingdom and (b) Romford constituency by the end of February 2024.

The Home Office has always been clear that use of hotels as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers was a short-term measure to ensure that we met our statutory obligation to accommodate asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute during a period of unprecedented numbers of small boat arrivals.

We are making significant progress in closing hotels, with 50 due to be closed by the end of January and many more in the coming months.

The programme of closures will be managed carefully to ensure all supported asylum seekers are provided with suitable alternative accommodation elsewhere in the estate. Dispersal accommodation and large disused military sites are cheaper for the taxpayer and less impactful on communities.

Data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation (including in contingency hotels and other contingency accommodation) is published in table Asy_D11 here: Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab).