Reeves vows to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by next election
11 June 2025, 12:55 | Updated: 11 June 2025, 14:23
Spending Review Key Points:
- £29bn extra day-to-day NHS spending
- £39bn on social housing
- End of asylum hotels
- No zero-hour contracts
- £11bn in extra defence spending
Rachel Reeves has vowed to end its use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the next election.
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Making the announcement as part of the Chancellor's spending review, Reeves revealed the Government will end the “costly” use of hotels to house asylum seekers by 2029.
As part of the spending review, funding of “up to £280 million more per year” was announced by the Chancellor to cover Border Security Command.
Reeves vowed the investment would "support the integrity of our borders”.
Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, the Chancellor said: “To support the integrity of our borders I can announce that funding of up to £280 million more per year by the end of the spending review for our new Border Security Command."
She added that the move will come as a result of the government "tackling the asylum backlog", emphasising the strengthening of Border Security Command.
Reeves said the additional £280m in funding would "cut the asylum backlog" by hearing "more appeal cases, and return people who have no right to be here".
She added the investment would ultimately save "the taxpayer £1bn per year" - as Labour pledged to spend £190billion more in public services compared to previous governments.
Reeves continued: “Alongside that, we are tackling the asylum backlog. The party opposite left behind a broken system: billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money spent on housing asylum seekers in hotels, leaving people in limbo and shunting the cost of failure onto local communities. We won’t let that stand.
“So I can confirm today that, led by the work of … the Home Secretary, we will be ending the costly use of hotels to house asylum seekers in this Parliament.
“Funding that I have provided today, including from the Transformation Fund, will cut the asylum backlog, hear more appeal cases, and return people who have no right to be here, saving the taxpayer £1 billion per year.”
The move follows widespread unrest last summer, with rioters targeting hotels housing asylum seekers in a string of attacks.
It comes hours after it was suggested old tower blocks and former student accommodation could be used to house migrants as a viable alternative to hotels currently housing migrants.
Speaking on Tuesday, Home Office minister Dame Angela Eagle told MPs that the Government was searching for a “medium-sized” selection of sites as alternative accommodation.
Last October concerns were raised over plans to clear the asylum backlog, with The Times reporting that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and other ministers had realised that clearing the queue would take longer than they had anticipated.
The party had pledged to clear it and "end asylum hotels" but a Whitehall source told the Times that the it is "much worse than we thought".
