Two Labour-run councils ‘considering all options’ to challenge migrant hotel use
Two Labour-run councils are considering legal action to stop the use of hotels to house migrants in their areas after Epping council won a temporary injunction.
The leaders of Wirral and Tamworth councils both say they are considering their legal options in the wake of the Epping case, citing similar concerns about the impact of the hotels on their local communities.
Politics latest: Judge in Epping hotel case was Tory candidate four times
Epping Forest District Council won an interim High Court injunction on Tuesday to stop migrants being housed at The Bell Hotel, after arguing its owners did not have planning permission to do so.
Paula Basnett, the Labour leader of Wirral council, said: “We are actively considering all options available to us to ensure that any use of hotels or other premises in Wirral is lawful and does not ride roughshod over planning regulations or the wishes of our communities.”
She added: “If necessary, we will not hesitate to challenge such decisions in order to protect both residents and those seeking refuge.”
Carol Dean, the Labour leader of Tamworth Borough Council, said she understands the “strong feelings” of residents about the use of a local hotel to house asylum seekers.
She pointed out that under the Labour government, the use of hotels has halved from 402 to 210, with the aim of stopping the use of any hotels by 2029.
But in light of the Epping case, she said “we are closely monitoring developments and reviewing our legal position”.
Epping has been the focal point of protests against migrant hotels in recent weeks. Pic: Reuters
Badenoch backs more council rebellions
Other Tory councils are also being encouraged to follow Epping’s lead by party leader Kemi Badenoch.
She has sent a letter to all the councils they control, pledging her support for them to fight migrant hotels.
She wrote: “The Epping hotel injunction is a victory for local people led by a good Conservative council working hard for their community. This is the difference Conservatives in local government deliver. Real plans. Real action.”
Conservative-run Broxbourne Council has announced it is exploring its legal options.
The Reform UK leader of Kent County Council has also said she was writing to fellow leaders in Kent to explore whether they could potentially take legal action.
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Police officers ahead of a demonstration outside The Bell Hotel. Pic: PA
Government under pressure
The prospect of more rulings in favour of councils will leave ministers asking where else they might be able to house asylum seekers. Other options may include flats and ex-army bases.
The prime minister and the home secretary are under huge pressure to clear the asylum backlog and stop using hotels across the country to house those waiting for their applications to be processed.
Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper are under pressure to bring down small boat crossings. Pics: PA
Protests have sprung up at migrant hotels across the country. But The Bell Hotel in Epping became a focal point in recent weeks after an asylum seeker housed there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
The council sought an interim High Court injunction to stop migrants from being accommodated at the hotel, owned by Somani Hotels Limited, on the basis that using it for that purpose contravened local planning regulations.
The interim injunction demanded that the hotel be cleared of its occupants within 14 days, but in his ruling on Tuesday, Mr Justice Eyre granted the temporary block, while extending the time limit by which it must stop housing asylum seekers to 12 September.
Somani Hotels said it intended to appeal the decision. Its barrister, Piers Riley-Smith, argued it would set a precedent that could affect “the wider strategy” of housing asylum seekers in hotels.
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Asylum hotels: ‘People have had enough’
Epping hotel ‘sidestepped public scrutiny’
A government attempt to delay the application was rejected by the High Court judge. Home Office barristers had argued the case had a “substantial impact” on the government performing its legal duties to asylum seekers.
But Mr Justice Eyre dismissed the Home Office’s bid, stating that the department’s involvement was “not necessary”.
The judge said the hotel’s owners “sidestepped the public scrutiny and explanation which would otherwise have taken place if an application for planning permission or for a certificate of lawful use had been made”.
Reacting to Tuesday’s judgment, border security minister Dame Angela Eagle said the government will “continue working with local authorities and communities to address legitimate concerns”.
She added: “Our work continues to close all asylum hotels by the end of this parliament.”
Rachel Reeves has told Sky News she is looking at both tax rises and spending cuts in the budget, in her first interview since being briefed on the scale of the fiscal black hole she faces.
“Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well,” the chancellor said when asked how she would deal with the country’s economic challenges in her 26 November statement.
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Ms Reeves was shown the first draft of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) report, revealing the size of the black hole she must fill next month, on Friday 3 October.
She has never previously publicly confirmed tax rises are on the cards in the budget, going out of her way to avoid mentioning tax in interviews two weeks ago.
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Chancellor pledges not to raise VAT
Cabinet ministers had previously indicated they did not expect future spending cuts would be used to ensure the chancellor met her fiscal rules.
Ms Reeves also responded to questions about whether the economy was in a “doom loop” of annual tax rises to fill annual black holes. She appeared to concede she is trapped in such a loop.
Asked if she could promise she won’t allow the economy to get stuck in a doom loop cycle, Ms Reeves replied: “Nobody wants that cycle to end more than I do.”
She said that is why she is trying to grow the economy, and only when pushed a third time did she suggest she “would not use those (doom loop) words” because the UK had the strongest growing economy in the G7 in the first half of this year.
What’s facing Reeves?
Ms Reeves is expected to have to find up to £30bn at the budget to balance the books, after a U-turn on winter fuel and welfare reforms and a big productivity downgrade by the OBR, which means Britain is expected to earn less in future than previously predicted.
Yesterday, the IMF upgraded UK growth projections by 0.1 percentage points to 1.3% of GDP this year – but also trimmed its forecast by 0.1% next year, also putting it at 1.3%.
The UK growth prospects are 0.4 percentage points worse off than the IMF’s projects last autumn. The 1.3% GDP growth would be the second-fastest in the G7, behind the US.
Last night, the chancellor arrived in Washington for the annual IMF and World Bank conference.
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The big issues facing the UK economy
‘I won’t duck challenges’
In her Sky News interview, Ms Reeves said multiple challenges meant there was a fresh need to balance the books.
“I was really clear during the general election campaign – and we discussed this many times – that I would always make sure the numbers add up,” she said.
“Challenges are being thrown our way – whether that is the geopolitical uncertainties, the conflicts around the world, the increased tariffs and barriers to trade. And now this (OBR) review is looking at how productive our economy has been in the past and then projecting that forward.”
She was clear that relaxing the fiscal rules (the main one being that from 2029-30, the government’s day-to-day spending needs to rely on taxation alone, not borrowing) was not an option, making tax rises all but inevitable.
“I won’t duck those challenges,” she said.
“Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well, but the numbers will always add up with me as chancellor because we saw just three years ago what happens when a government, where the Conservatives, lost control of the public finances: inflation and interest rates went through the roof.”
Pic: PA
Blame it on the B word?
Ms Reeves also lay responsibility for the scale of the black hole she’s facing at Brexit, along with austerity and the mini-budget.
This could risk a confrontation with the party’s own voters – one in five (19%) Leave voters backed Labour at the last election, playing a big role in assuring the party’s landslide victory.
The chancellor said: “Austerity, Brexit, and the ongoing impact of Liz Truss’s mini-budget, all of those things have weighed heavily on the UK economy.
“Already, people thought that the UK economy would be 4% smaller because of Brexit.
“Now, of course, we are undoing some of that damage by the deal that we did with the EU earlier this year on food and farming, goods moving between us and the continent, on energy and electricity trading, on an ambitious youth mobility scheme, but there is no doubting that the impact of Brexit is severe and long-lasting.”
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