Protesters hold the Union Jack and St George's flags outside the Bell Hotel, Essex, on Friday as the British government has overturned a court ruling requiring asylum seekers to be temporarily evicted from the hotel in Epping, Britain.Jack Taylor/Reuters
A British appeal court has overturned a temporary injunction that stopped the government from using hotels to house asylum seekers, but the legal and political battle over the policy is far from over.
The Home Office has become increasingly reliant on around 200 hotels across the country to accommodate the growing number of asylum seekers. More than 111,000 people claimed asylum in Britain in the year ending June, 2025, up 14 per cent from the previous year, and the number of those housed in hotels has topped 32,000.
The hotels became a hot-button political issue this summer after an asylum seeker housed at The Bell Hotel in Epping, northwest of London, was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. The claimant has pleaded not guilty and a trial is under way.
The allegations led to violent protests outside the Bell and other hotels in England, and put pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to address the soaring number of claimants.
Mr. Starmer has vowed to phase out the use of hotels over the next four years, but that has done little to quell the outcry among critics and the public which, according to most polls, has become increasingly concerned about immigration.
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This week, Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage, whose party has been leading the polls, moved to capitalize on the uproar by promising that a Reform government would launch mass deportations and a major crackdown on asylum seekers, most of whom are young men from Africa and the Middle East.
“We are not far away from major civil disorder,” Mr. Farage said at a press conference on Tuesday. “It is an invasion, as these young men illegally break into our country.”
Earlier this month, Epping council filed a lawsuit against the Bell’s owner, Somani Hotels, arguing that the company violated local planning laws by changing the hotel’s use. Last week, a High Court judge largely sided with the council and issued a temporary injunction ordering Somani to remove all 138 asylum seekers by Sept. 12. The injunction was to remain in place until a trial was held in October on the merits of the Epping’s lawsuit.
The ruling prompted a wave of protests and encouraged several other councils to threaten similar lawsuits.
Somani and the Home Office appealed the decision and on Friday, a panel of three appellate-court judges overturned the injunction. The panel ruled that the lower-court judge had made several errors in reaching his conclusions and failed to consider the national priority of the Home Office.
“The Home Secretary has clear statutory duties towards asylum seekers in this country under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. These include the duty to provide support to them and their dependents and to prevent destitution among this cohort,” the panel found.
“The wider picture, the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers pursuant to the Home Secretary statutory duty, is a national issue requiring a structured response.”
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The ruling means that asylum seekers will continue to be housed at the Bell and other hotels while Epping’s case is adjudicated.
Immigration minister Angela Eagle welcomed the decision and said it would take time to fix the asylum system. “This government will close all hotels by the end of this Parliament and we appealed this judgment so hotels like the Bell can be exited in a controlled and orderly way,” she said in a statement Friday.
The government has yet to outline in detail where it will house asylum seekers. Stephen Kinnock, a Minister of State in the Department of Health and Social Care, said Friday that officials have been considering several options including disused warehouses, office buildings and military barracks.
But the pressure on the government will only continue to build and more protests are expected.
On Friday, Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch urged local councils to keep fighting the use of hotels. “This ruling is a setback, but it is not the end. I say to Conservative councils seeking similar injunctions against asylum hotels – KEEP GOING!” she said in a statement.
Epping council’s leader, Chris Whitbread, called for calm but he also expressed deep disappointment at the ruling.
“We saw the government say that asylum seekers have more rights than my residents. I’m really cross with this ruling. Obviously, we’ll now reflect on where we are,” Mr. Whitbread told Times Radio.
“I’m really concerned for the future of the town at the moment.”