The Home Office has terminated contracts with five hotels in Birmingham, Dudley, and the West Midlands that housed asylum seekers, as part of a broader government purge. The closures took effect on Thursday, June 25, following a pledge by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to end the use of hotels for accommodating what the government terms 'illegal migrants'.
Hotels affected and government plans
The five West Midlands hotels now closed are: Dayz Away Lodge in Dudley, The Collection Hotel on Hagley Road in Edgbaston, Best Western Stoke, OYO Evesham, and Episode Leamington. Nationwide, 20 hotels ceased operations on the same day. The government intends to replace hotel accommodation with 'basic accommodation' in Ministry of Defence (MoD) properties, such as MoD Bicester, MoD Barnham, and MoD Linton-on-Ouse, where planning permission is being sought.
Remaining hotels and criticisms
Despite these closures, 170 hotels remain open for migrants who entered the UK illegally, including the former Ramada Hotel in Walmley, Sutton Coldfield, which has been the site of regular weekly protests. Critics, including the Refugee Council, argue that the closure scheme is too slow, leaving many people in limbo. However, the Home Office notes that over 200 hotels have closed since the pledge was made.
Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Alex Norris, said: “We promised to close every asylum hotel and hand them back to communities. That is exactly what we are doing here in the West Midlands. Twenty more hotels are now closed across England, hotel numbers have more than halved since their peak, and we are moving people into large, basic sites that are a far cry from the hotels the last Government left us with. This is a system being brought back under control – and we will not stop until the job is done.”
Impact and statistics
Today’s announcement is the second tranche of hotel closures, following 11 closures in April. The government says overall asylum costs have fallen by nearly £1 billion. The number of illegal migrants in hotels has been slashed from a peak of 56,000 to 21,000 now. A total of nearly 70,000 asylum seekers have been 'returned' since Labour came to power. Over 128,000 initial asylum decisions were made in the year to March 2026, up by more than a third on the previous year, dramatically reducing the backlog.
Concerns over alternative accommodations
Critics, including refugee charities, warn that the phased closure timeline—aiming to end all hotel use by 2029—is too long and costly. There are also concerns that the alternative so far has been to place vulnerable asylum seekers into Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs), often in economically disadvantaged areas, triggering community tensions and reducing access to services.
