Government pledges to end use of hotels to house asylum seekers

The government will stop housing asylum seekers in hotels by 2029

According to Sky News, the Chancellor says she is also "tackling the asylum backlog".

She adds: "The party opposite left behind a broken system: billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money spent on housing asylum seekers in hotels leaving people in limbo and shunting the cost of failure onto local communities. 

"We won't let that stand."

Reeves goes on to say that the funding announced today, including that from the transformation fund, will help cut the asylum backlog, see more appeal cases tended to, and "return people who have no right to be here".

She claims this will save the taxpayer £1bn a year.

Funding of "up to £280 million more per year”, was announced as part of the spending review by the Chancellor to cover Border Security Command.

Reeves assured that the investment would "support the integrity of our borders”.

Every year, thousands of asylum seekers arrive on Southern England's coastline in small boats. They are mostly housed in hotels across the county, having cost the government 3.1 billion pounds in 2023-24, per the UK Parliament.

The impact this has on tourism, combined with the cost of accommodation and objections from some locals about asylum seekers in their communities, has made this a pressing issue in the UK.

Reeve's Labour Party has promised to end the use of asylum hotels before the next general elections, which will be held in 2029.