Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on reducing the use of hotels as contingency accommodation for asylum seekers.

This government does not want to continue the use of hotels for a day longer than necessary. We are as frustrated as the public are at the cost to the taxpayer.

Our strategy is to limit hotels wherever possible by increasing dispersal accommodation agreed with local authorities and by making use of large sites. We are working with the MoD to make use of disused military sites.

Migrants will be housed in decent, but not luxurious accommodation, that does not create a pull factor to the UK.

The Government can’t build it’s way out of this challenge, nor can the UK taxpayer afford to do so. The only sustainable answer is to deter individuals from making this dangerous, unnecessary and illegal journey, as we will be doing through our Illegal Migration Bill.