Borough council rejects move to lobby Government for timeline to cease use of hotel to house asylum seekers

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

By Eddie Bisknell – Local Democracy Reporting Service

A move to lobby the Government for a timeline on when a Derbyshire hotel will no longer be used to accommodate asylum seekers has been rejected by council officials.

At an Erewash Borough Council this month (January 22nd), the move to lobby the Government over the use of the Best Western Hotel in Sandiacre as asylum seeker accommodation was rejected.

The move, brought by Reform UK and backed on the night by the Conservatives, was defeated by opposition from the Labour administration and Green and Lib Dem members.

Three months ago the council had agreed to consider seeking an injunction to end the use of the Best Western hotel as asylum seeker accommodation, forming part of the authority’s routine planning enforcement function.

However, this month’s full council meeting in Ilkeston Town Hall was told that the authority had decided not to seek any action against the Best Western because it was “not in the best interest of the community”.

Reform UK Councillor Paul Maginnis said he had worked in homelessness in Sneinton, a suburb of Nottingham, where people could not gain access to homes in multiple occupation without a local connection, saying this same approach ought to block people from being moved from the Sandiacre to local HMOs if their asylum application was granted.

He told the meeting: “We have a two-tier system where they (asylum seekers) are being housed and we have homeless British people on the street. We are calling for an even playing field.”

Cllr Dan Price, Reform, said: “They have arrived in this country illegally, they are criminals. We don’t look after our armed forces veterans as well as these people.

“They get three square meals a day and I have families in my community that are struggling to put food on the table. They want three square meals a day.”

Cllr Wayne Major, Conservative opposition leader, said: “We do need to do something about immigration. We did have the Rwanda plan which was starting to show fruit. People should not be leaving safe countries to come here.”

Cllr Ann Mills, Green Party, told the meeting that people are only referred to as criminals if they have been found guilty of a crime.

She said the asylum seeker act allowed people to arrive in the UK and declare themselves to an immigration official to apply for asylum, and be given accommodation while their application is processed.

Cllr Mills said asylum seeker accommodation was the responsibility of the Home Office, not the council.

She said: “You have no reason to know how people arrive at the Best Western, you have no idea if they arrived in this country by boat.

“If they are granted asylum they become a refugee and will be provided with support.”

However, she said: “There is a two-tier system, but for homelessness relief. British people have 56 days of relief before they become homeless while asylum seekers have 28 days.

“People in Iran are being shot by their Government. If any of them come here I hope you will treat them with compassion.”

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, this month publicly acknowledged for the first time that thousands of people were killed during recent protests, with BBC Verify authenticating that government security forces had shot and killed protestors.

Cllr James Dawon, Labour leader, said “mistruths” about the Sandiacre hotel had been spread online.

He said it was “disengenous” to leave out that the council had only agreed to ask its officers to consider action on the hotel, with legislation not allowing any scope for political direction or interference.

Cllr Dawson said: “We don’t need to be taking swipes at officers for doing their jobs just because it is politically expedient.”

Cllr Maginnis, a former Conservative, claimed leadership was “hiding behind legalese and bureaucracy”, saying “the strength of feeling on this is absolutely massive”.

He said: “This is the number one reason why the Conservative vote has fallen away. If there is an [borough] election next year, most of you are toast.

“The protesters outside will be very disappointed and will show that disappointment at the ballot box.”

A small number of protesters had gathered outside the town hall for the meeting, periodically chanting “Eng-er-land” throughout the evening.

The hotel in Bostocks Lane, Sandiacre, has been in use for asylum seeker accommodation for more than three years and remains in use more than two years after its promised cessation by former Conservative immigration minister – now Reform UK MP – Robert Jenrick.

Mr Jenrick had said in Parliament in late 2023, in response to then Erewash MP, Conservative Maggie Throup, that the first closures of hotels used for asylum seekers accommodation would take place from January 2024 and that if Erewash’s weren’t in the first tranche of closures they would be “exited very soon”.

The adjacent Novotel hotel ceased its use for asylum seeker accommodation in June 2024, but the Best Western continues to be used for this purpose.

The most recent Home Office data, up until September 2025, released in November, shows there are currently 179 asylum seekers being accommodated in the Best Western Hotel.