Number of asylum seekers housed in UK hotels falls to lowest level in 18 months
The number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels has fallen to the lowest level for 18 months, standing at 30,657 at the end of 2025.
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The Home Office has published its latest immigration statistics for the whole year.
In encouraging news for the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, there was a significant fall in the number of asylum seekers in taxpayer-funded hotels. At the end of 2025, 30,657 were housed in asylum hotels, down almost 20% since the end of 2024.
It also means hotel usage has almost halved from its peak of 56,000 in September 2023.
Last year, 101,000 people claimed asylum in the UK, down by 4 per cent on the previous year, with 39 per cent arriving on a visa or with other leave before claiming asylum.
It is more than double the number arriving in the pre-pandemic year of 2019 (45,537).
Migrants who arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel in small boats accounted for 41 per cent of the total number of people claiming asylum last year.
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The shift also indicates a rise in people being housed in other forms of accommodation, with the 72,769 people in houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and former military sites, such as Wethersfield.
Asylum seekers have a right to accommodation in the United Kingdom while their claims are processed if they lack the finances to support themselves. When there is no longer-term accommodation available, the government will use hotel rooms.
The government is seeking to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers by 2029, with such accommodation estimated to have cost the taxpayer £15.3 billion over the last ten years, according to the National Audit Office.
The backlog of people waiting for an initial decision on their asylum claim, meanwhile, dropped to 64,000, an almost two-thirds reduction when compared to the peak in June 2023.
Overall, more than 100,000 people claimed asylum in the UK in 2025, according to figures published today by the Home Office, a 4% annual decrease.
The latest tranche of data covers the calendar year of 2025.
Since coming to power, the government has repeatedly stated its intention to ‘smash gangs’ that are organizing small boat crossings.
The Border Security Command leads the Home Office’s efforts to break the business models of immigration gangs. Its commander, Martin Hewitt, was appointed to lead the force in September 2024.
In 2025, over 41,500 people crossed the Channel in small boats - the highest annual figure in three years.
Over 60% of those who made the journey came from just five countries: Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, and Somalia.
Yesterday, 545 migrants arrived on small boats from France, representing the busiest day of crossings so far this year. This is down 20 per cent from 80,841 at the end of September 2025 and a drop of nearly a half (48 per cent) from 124,802 a year earlier at the end of December 2024.
The asylum backlog peaked at 175,457 at the end of June 2023. The latest figure of 64,426 is the lowest since 60,548 at the end of September 2020.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have removed nearly 60,000 illegal migrants, numbers in asylum hotels are down, law enforcement action against people smugglers is at record levels and we are bearing down on the asylum backlog.
“But we must go further. The number of people crossing the Channel is too high, and too many hotels remain in use.
“That is why the Home Secretary is introducing sweeping reforms to tackle the pull factors drawing illegal migrants to Britain, and we are ramping up removals of those with no right to be here.”