More than 100 people needed homelessness support after Long Eaton asylum seeker hotel closed

More than 100 people required homelessness assistance from a Derbyshire council when a Government-run asylum seeker hotel was closed. Erewash Borough Council papers detail that when the Home Office’s asylum seeker accommodation in the Novotel Hotel in Bostocks Lane, Long Eaton closed in June it left dozens of people in need of assistance.

The facility, along with further asylum seeker accommodation in the neighbouring Best Western Hotel, catered for around 400 people who required housing having fled their home countries. Both facilities received a significant amount of negative attention from protesters, which ultimately led to the Novotel facility’s closure, announced in March and eventually shut in June.

It is understood that Best Western facility remains operational, with the Home Office refusing to confirm or deny its use due to the violent “racially motivated” protests experienced in Southport and other towns and cities in the summer – which were linked to asylum seeker accommodation along with general immigration opposition. The Best Western is listed as “temporarily closed” on Google and its website does not allow bookings to be made.

A spokesperson also did not confirm how many people were staying in the Novotel Hotel when its use as asylum seeker accommodation ended. The borough council details in its annual report on homelessness that 105 people sought homelessness support after being “required to leave Home Office accommodation” – representing 20 per cent (one in five) of the people the council has needed to support over the past year (total of 544).

This made it the borough’s second most common reason for requiring homelessness assistance, behind “end of private rented tenancy” (117) and above “family no longer willing or able to accommodate (104). It wrote: “During the reporting period (October 2023 to September 2024) a significant increase in homelessness approaches was observed due to asylum seekers, granted leave to remain in the UK, leaving contingency accommodation provided by the Home Office.

“This followed the introduction by the Home Office of a fast-tracked system for processing asylum claims which increased the number of asylum cases being determined. During the reporting period the Novotel and Best Western Hotels were both providing accommodation for asylum seekers although the Novotel Hotel was withdrawn from the Home Office’s contingency estate when its contract term ended in June 2024.

“Although numbers of approaches to the council have increased, many asylum seekers leaving hotel accommodation in Erewash have been able to secure accommodation themselves without needing the council’s assistance.” A Home Office spokesperson said: “This government inherited an asylum system under unprecedented strain, with thousands stuck in a backlog without their claims processed.

“We have taken immediate action to restart asylum processing and are delivering a major uplift in returns to remove people with no right to be in the UK. Over the long term this will reduce our reliance on hotels and costs of accommodation.

“We remain absolutely committed to ending the use of hotels for asylum seekers and continue to identify a range of accommodation options to minimise their use.”

We send out the biggest stories in an email every day. Sign up for the main Derbyshire Live newsletter here.