Fact check: Government committed to using hotels for asylum claimants for now

Pensioners are not being asked to downsize to reduce the Government’s reliance on hotels for housing migrants awaiting asylum decisions.

Sunday 05 January 2025 10:00 GMT

The use of hotels to house asylum seekers has drawn criticism, but looks set to continue for the time being (PA) (PA Wire)

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A video post on TikTok has claimed the Government is planning to “downsize the homes of pensioners and council tenants with extra bedrooms”. It attributes to the plan to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and quotes her as saying: “The aim is to free up housing for the refugees who’ll be allowed to bring their families from abroad.” The post also suggests the plan has been implemented to reduce the reliance on using hotels.

Evaluation

The Government has not announced any policy of acquiring homes with “spare” bedrooms or even encouraging the sale of such homes. The use of hotels to house those awaiting decisions on asylum claims is expected to continue indefinitely, with no drastic measures to end the policy soon.

The facts

In a Parliamentary debate on November 20 2024, Home Office minister Dame Angela Eagle announced there were 220 hotels currently in use as accommodation for asylum seekers. She also noted that while the Government had an “ambition” to end this practice, the hotels “remain key to delivering on our legal responsibility”.

This policy of continued use of hotels was also mentioned by Labour peer Lord Hanson in a House of Lords debate five days later. He said the Government’s aim was to “exit hotels as quickly as possible to save the taxpayer resource”.

The Government, therefore, is not seeking to cease immediately the use of hotels for the housing of asylum seekers, despite a Labour manifesto commitment to ending this policy. It is also important to note that, despite the use of both terms in the original TikTok, refugees are distinct from asylum seekers as they have had their claim of asylum approved. Those housed in hotels are awaiting a decision.

The quote purportedly from Angela Rayner referenced in the TikTok post appears to be fictional. A Google search finds no record of the exact wording, and the Department for Housing, Communities & Local Government told the PA news agency: “This is a false video spreading deliberately fake information. None of these claims are government policy.”

This is not the first time there has been alarm at the idea of the UK Government asking pensioners to downsize. In November 2021, Conservative housing minister Chris Pincher told a House of Lords committee that people “rattling around” in underoccupied homes should be encouraged to downsize. This was not directly related to immigration, however, and was instead aimed at freeing up the housing market.

There was also some consternation in February 2024 when an elderly couple in Northamptonshire were sent a letter by their local council regarding a potential compulsory purchase order on their home, in a case that drew the attention of former Reform UK co-deputy leader Ben Habib. Although this was part of a scheme to house refugees and asylum seekers, including those fleeing conflict in Ukraine, the council admitted the letter had been sent in error and it was not seeking to force any pensioners out of their homes.