Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has set a time limit for the amount of time a (a) single, (b) family and (c) children asylum seeker or refugee should spend in a hotel prior to be allocated more permanent housing; and what steps he is taking with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to identify other adequate forms of temporary accommodation for those groups.

Although there is no limit on the length of time adults, families and children supported under section 95 of the 1999 Act can remain in hotel accommodation we do not want to house people in temporary accommodation for any longer than is absolutely necessary.

The use of hotel accommodation is a temporary solution to meet our immediate statutory need. The plans in place for exiting hotels depend upon our providers being able to secure sufficient bedspaces in dispersal accommodation across the country. We have been working closely with our accommodation providers to urgently increase the amount of Dispersed Accommodation (DA) available to us. The full asylum dispersal model, announced on 13 April 2022, will gradually end the use of hotels. This will be achieved by allowing the Home Office to procure dispersal properties within the private rental sector in all Local Authority areas across England, Scotland and Wales, rather than the minority of Local Authorities which currently participate.