More military sites could house asylum seekers, says John Healey

The defence secretary has said the government is looking at expanding the use of military sites to house asylum seekers, as it seeks to move people out of hotels.

John Healey also confirmed officials were considering other types of “non-military” accommodation.

Just over 32,000 asylum seekers are currently in hotels, which represents about a third of the total number being housed in taxpayer-funded accommodation.

Labour wants to accelerate its plan to end the use of hotels, which have become a focal point for anti-migrant protests.

Reports say that Shabana Mahmood, who replaced Yvette Cooper as home secretary on Friday, is set to announce proposals to house asylum seekers on military land within weeks.

Two former military sites – MDP Wethersfield, a former RAF base in Essex, and Napier Barracks, a former military base in Kent – are already being used to house asylum seekers after being opened under the previous Tory government.

Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the defence secretary confirmed the government was looking at additional “military and non-military sites for potential temporary accommodation”.

His department is yet to confirm a list of sites, but Healey added that military planners were working with the Home Office on options.

“What you are seeing from Keir Starmer now is this isn’t just a job for the Home Office, it’s an all of government effort,” he added.

The Home Office confirmed 1,097 people crossed the English Channel in small boats on Saturday, Mahmood’s first full day in the job, underscoring the scale of the challenge she faces.

The total number of crossings so far this year is now more than 30,000, the earliest point in a calendar year where that threshold has been reached.

Since entering office, Labour has shelved plans drawn up under the Conservatives to house asylum seekers at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, arguing the proposal failed to deliver value for money for the taxpayer.

However, the government is expected to increase the number of migrants living at the former site of RAF Wethersfield in Essex. Napier Barracks in Kent, which had been due to stop housing asylum seekers this month, is also set to stay open longer.

The use of hotels to house asylum seekers has grown significantly since around 2020, with total accommodation contracts now set to be worth £15.3bn over a 10-year period.

Figures last month showed 32,059 asylum seekers were in hotels at the end of June – higher than before Labour took office, but well down on a peak of 56,042 in September 2023 under the previous government.

A further 74,016 were in taxpayer-funded housing, the majority of it so-called “dispersal” accommodation, such as rented flats, which is more long-term.

Downing Street has previously confirmed officials were looking to house asylum seekers in prefabricated buildings on a range of sites, including industrial land.

Cooper, the new foreign secretary, had also previously said her old department was considering housing people in warehouses.

The Conservatives have blamed this year’s high level of Channel crossings on Labour’s decision to scrap their plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda – which they failed to get up and running before losing the last election.

Speaking to Kuenssberg, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Sir Keir “had no plan in place” to replace the “deterrent” offered by their Rwanda plan.

Reform UK, which says it could deport 600,000 people within five years if it takes power, says it would also house people arriving into the UK illegally in prefabricated, or “modular” detention centres, prior to removal.

The party says it would build a series of new removal centres in “remote parts of the country” but has refused to set out particular locations.

It says the new centres would be “basic but not punitive”, containing prefabricated two-person rooms, on-site medical facilities, and canteen catering.

Speaking to Sky News, Zia Yusuf, Reform’s head of policy, denied this would include shipping containers, adding: “They’re not shipping containers, they’re purpose-built modular steel structures”.