Home Office eyes three former military sites for asylum seekers to cut hotel use

The Home Office has earmarked three former Ministry of Defence sites in Oxfordshire, Suffolk and North Yorkshire that could house about 3,750 asylum seekers if planning permission is granted. Officials are already in discussions over MoD Bicester, MoD Barnham and MoD Linton-on-Ouse, but no permission has yet been secured.

The move is part of a broader push to reduce the use of asylum hotels, which have become one of the most politically costly parts of the government’s migration policy. Home Office factsheets have described military-style accommodation as temporary housing for asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute while their claims are processed, and ministers have previously argued that the model is “basic, safe and secure” while being more orderly and cheaper than hotels.

Linton-on-Ouse is the most politically sensitive of the three. A previous proposal to turn RAF Linton-on-Ouse into an asylum centre was dropped in 2022 after fierce local opposition and a council legal challenge. Earlier plans had called for up to 1,500 single men, while later reporting on the revived version suggests the site could now take around 1,200 single men.

The row over North Yorkshire is likely to shape the reaction again. Campaigners and councillors in the area have already opposed the return of the site, while Sir Alec Shelbrooke, the local Conservative MP, has said he would not be opposed to closing hotels and using former military bases instead. The contrast captures the central trade-off in the government’s approach: speed in finding accommodation versus the legitimacy costs of placing large numbers of asylum seekers on former defence land.

The Home Office has already relied on similar sites elsewhere, including Wethersfield in Essex, Scampton in Lincolnshire, Napier Barracks in Folkestone, Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex and Cameron Barracks in Scotland. Official guidance has said those locations are being used for people who would otherwise be destitute, underlining how military estates have become a key part of the asylum system’s emergency housing network.

The latest plans also arrive ahead of fresh immigration reforms expected to be introduced to Parliament next week. That timing suggests the government is trying to pair new legislation with a visible effort to get people out of hotels quickly, even as local councils in Oxfordshire, Suffolk and North Yorkshire are once again being asked to absorb the political fallout.