Professor Jonathan Darling on the use of hotels in housing asylum seekers

The modern system of asylum seeker accommodation goes back to the late 1990s. At that point, responsibility for housing asylum seekers who had arrived in the UK and were awaiting a decision on refugee status lay with local councils. This put particular pressure on councils in London and South East England, which appealed to the Government for change.

The dispersal system

In 2000, the Government responded by introducing the dispersal system, under which asylum seekers are distributed across the country. This system was based on an assessment of available social housing, and meant that asylum seekers were mostly dispersed to the north of England, as well as Scotland, Wales, and parts of the Midlands.

For local councils with hard-to-let social housing this guaranteed them an income from the Government because, under the 1951 Refugee Convention, states are obliged to provide accommodation for asylum seekers. Central Government met the costs.

This initially caused some community tensions in some areas, but these decreased as there was investment in integration measures and refugee support networks expanded.

The arrival of private contractors

The next major change was in 2012, when responsibility for housing asylum seekers was taken away from councils and passed to private contractors – predominantly three large companies. It was then up to those contractors to work with councils to find and agree accommodation. They largely turned to the private rented sector.

Councils could block certain options, on grounds of over-concentration of asylum seekers in a particular area or potential community tensions. But the Home Office could override those objections, if it wished to.

‘Full dispersal’

In 2023, the UK moved to ‘full dispersal’, meaning the Home Office could impose dispersal of asylum seekers onto local authorities. This meant that areas that had not previously received any asylum seekers began to do so. There has been considerable tension since then.

The growth of hotels in accommodating asylum seekers has not been intentional. Hotels have moved from being a short-term emergency measure to being critical to fill gaps in accommodation.  

During and after the Covid-19 pandemic, Home Office decision making on asylum claims slowed down, causing blockages in the system. If people don’t receive an asylum application outcome, they can’t move on to receive refugee status and get alternative accommodation – either with the support of a local council, or through finding work and providing for themselves.

If they can’t move out of dispersal accommodation, then new arrivals can’t move in – and hotels have been increasingly used as a result.

Hotels are not sustainable accommodation solutions. They are more expensive than dispersal accommodation and can isolate asylum seekers away from support services. They have become focal points for protest as communities were rarely consulted ahead of their use and perceptions of hotels as ‘luxury’ housing have fuelled public concerns.   

Find out more

- Read more about the work of Professor Jonathan Darling.
- Listen to Professor Darling on BBC’s AntiSocial mini guide to housing asylum seekers.  
- Read more from Professor Darling on The Conversation.
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