Derbyshire County Council calls for timeline on plans for asylum seeker hotel closure

The Best Western hotel in Bostocks Lane, Sandiacre. Image from Google.

By Jon Cooper – Local Democracy Reporting Service

Derbyshire County Council has agreed to call upon MPs to demand a clear timeline on the Government’s plans to shut down its controversial asylum seeker hotel system which the authority says currently allows for as many as 565 men to be housed in three areas of the county.

The council, which is led by a Reform UK administration, voted by a majority at a meeting on February 11th to approve Cllr Paul Maginnis’s motion that the Council Leader writes to Derbyshire’s MPs to ask them to request from the Home Office a clear and public timeline for when all asylum hotels will no longer be used to house asylum seekers.

It was also agreed under the same motion that the council requests the county’s borough and district councils only meet the minimum duties for housing any individuals leaving asylum hotels including not placing them in Houses in Multiple Occupation, known as HMOs, when there is no local connection.

Cllr Maginnis, Cabinet Support Member for Special Educational Needs, said: “The Labour Government promised to ‘stop the boats’ and end the use of asylum hotels. This issue is impacting many residents and county councillors are receiving numerous complaints.”

The Labour Government has already stated that it aims to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers by 2029 but some critics fear that this will be difficult to achieve.

Cllr Maginnis said during the council meeting at County Hall, in Matlock, that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has promised to ‘stop the boats’, ‘smash the gangs’ and close the asylum hotels.

But Cllr Maginnis claims there are still many concerns in Derbyshire which he says currently houses 75 asylum seeking men at the Sandpiper Hotel, on Sheffield Road, between Unstone and Old Whittington, in Chesterfield, 329, at the Midland Hotel and the Station Hotel, both on Midland Road, in Derby, and 161 at The Best Western, in Long Eaton, Erewash.

He argued that according to figures from the Labour Government’s Home Office, from September, 2025, the numbers of asylum seekers in hotels has increased by 23per cent since Labour came to power in July, 2024.

Cllr Maginnis claims this is an ‘unjustifiable use of taxpayers’ money at a time when he says the Government has increased taxes.

He also argued that the system allows for asylum seeking men to be housed without a local connection but British people and those who came to the UK legally do not have this same entitlement.

Cllr Maginnis told the meeting: “I think democracy is under threat here because time and time again the public are voting for politicians to stop these problems and it’s getting worse and worse.”

He pointed out that Erewash Borough Council decided not to consider an injunction preventing the use of hotels for migrant accommodation after Epping Forest District Council’s injunction was thrown out by the High Court.

Cllr Maginnis added Chesterfield Borough Council has also not put forward any similar plan to prevent asylum seeker hotels despite two protests outside the Sandpiper Hotel, and he claims Derby City Council has also ‘chosen not to act’.

Council Leader, Cllr Alan Graves, told the meeting: “As you can expect, I am in support of this motion because it speaks in respect of concerns of residents that are repeatedly being raised by people in Derbyshire.

“These are not abstract numbers. These placements are happening in the heart of our county and our council is getting a growing number of complaints, and community tensions are real.”

Cllr Graves argued the agreed motion asks for ‘clarity and accountability and reassurances that Derbyshire will not continue to be used as a convenient overflow’.

He added: “If a British citizen moves from one part of the country to another part of the country, they are not entitled to accommodation but asylum seeker men can be housed without any local connection while those who live here legally cannot.”

Conservative Group Leader, Cllr Alex Dale, who backed the motion, said: “As a councillor in Dronfield my patch neighbours The Sandpiper Hotel and we wrote to Government to ask they do not use that hotel and unfortunately we have had to raise concerns about the continued use of the hotel.

“We know the problem is getting worse and there has been a record number of crossings and it’s absolutely right we bring our MPs to account.”

Reform UK Cllr Dan Price, who oversees Ilkeston North, in Erewash, also backed Cllr Maginnis’s motion and he said as a former serviceman he finds it ‘heartbreaking’ to see ex-servicemen left homeless while asylum seekers are being housed at hotels.

Cllr Maginnis also argued that ‘safeguarding is important’ and Reform Cllr Charlotte Hill said that she does not feel safe ‘around these places as a woman’ given what she referred to as ‘the number of offences caused by illegal immigrants’.

However, Green Party Group Leader, Cllr Gez Kinsella, who raised some concerns about issues surrounding the use of asylum seeker hotels, argued that Derbyshire police told him there is no evidence of a preponderance among refugees and asylum seekers in hotels for them to be arrested or convicted of sexual offences.

He said: “I had written to Derbyshire Constabulary with a specific question on asylum seekers and refugees and the the preponderance to crime and in particular sexual offences.

“The police said to me there is no evidence to show there is a preponderance among refugees, particularly people in hotels, for them to be arrested or have been convicted of sexual offences.”

But Cllr Kinsella said that asylum seekers should not be placed in hotels at such a huge expense and that using HMOs is also not a good use of taxpayers’ money and there is ‘inevitably a negative community impact’ with protests outside these locations.

He argued that asylum seeker hotels have been imposed upon communities in areas like the East Midlands because it is cheaper for the Government and ‘they ride roughshod over these communities’.

Cllr Kinsella said: “This negative community impact creates grounds for people to exploit that and we have seen how it’s used by far right groups to exploit division and hatred and that is not good for anyone.”

Reform UK Cllr Jodie Brown, Vice Chairperson of the Council and who oversees Long Eaton South, disputed police figures as ‘extremely unreliable’ because she said she has been contacted by parents of 18 girls who have allegedly been harassed by people from an asylum seeker hotel but they had not gone to the police because ‘they felt there was no point’.

Cllr Brown said: “I’m sorry, but the police figures, as being a dependable source of information about the crimes that are being committed, is unreliable and it is naive to use them.”

Reform Cllr Stephen Reed said he understands British people are compassionate but he argued the responsibility of any Government is to the safety and welfare of its citizens and he feels this is not happening.

Deputy Council Leader, Cllr Robert Reaney, said: “There is a deep sense of concern about migration in general and in particular illegal immigration and it’s not about race or creed, it’s about numbers.”

Labour Group Leader, Cllr Anne Clarke, said the Labour Government is determined to reduce the impact on local areas as far as possible.

She added: “There is a statutory obligation to provide accommodation while applications are being considered.

“The Government is committed to closing all asylum seeker hotels by the end of this Parliament so there is a timeline for it.”

Cllr Clarke also accused the former Conservative Government of ‘doing little to address the issue’ and she added that she thinks ‘most people think the current Government is working to address this’.

Hotels were originally only to be used for short-term periods by Government when there was a shortage of other accommodation, but the use of asylum seeker hotels peaked under the Conservatives in September, 2023, when 56,042 people were being housed at hotels, according to Home Office statistics.

Latest Government statistics also show there were just 32,059 asylum seekers being housed in hotels at the end of June, 2025, although this includes an eight per cent increase since Labour came to power in July, 2024.

Independent fact checkers, Full Fact, stated the latest available data shows the number of asylum seekers in hotels has increased by 23 per cent between the end of June 2024 – just before Labour entered Government – and the end of September, 2025, but its says the number of hotels used for this purpose has decreased since Labour took power.

Labour MP Adam Thompson (pictured) said: “I have personally raised the use of the Best Western Hotel in Sandiacre to house asylum seekers with Government ministers many times, including the Prime Minister, Home Secretary and Immigration Minister.

“This Labour Government is committed to tackling illegal migration and ending the costly use of asylum hotels introduced by the then Tory minister, now Reform MP, Robert Jenrick.

“The number in use is already almost half of what it was at the peak under the Tories and we have made significant progress in clearing the asylum backlog.

“Whilst exact closure dates for individual asylum hotels are an operational matter for the Home Office, I will continue to raise this issue with ministers and keep the people of Erewash updated on the Best Western’s status when I am informed of notable developments.”

Derby City Council said the county council’s resolutions do not cover Derby so it did not feel it would be appropriate to comment despite the county council highlighting two asylum seeker hotels in the city in its supporting information.

The Home Office, Chesterfield Borough Council, Erewash Borough Council as well as Labour Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins and Labour Derby North MP Catherine Atkinson were also invited to comment.