Home Office Seeks Planning Permission to House Up to 3,750 Asylum Seekers at Three Former Military Sites

The Home Office is seeking planning permission to convert three former military sites into accommodation for up to 3,750 asylum seekers, GB News reported. The sites are the former RAF station at Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, MoD Bicester in Oxfordshire, and RAF Barnham in Suffolk.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood stated that repurposing former armed forces sites would form a central part of Labour's long-term strategy for housing asylum seekers.

"So military bases we see as the future for asylum accommodation," she told the House of Lords justice and home affairs committee. She added that the approach would allow services to be concentrated on single sites. Ministers also plan to expand capacity at two existing Ministry of Defence facilities to create space for a further 1,750 asylum seekers, with leases extended by up to four years.

Two sites already in use are Wethersfield in Essex and Crowborough in Sussex. The number of asylum hotels in use has fallen from a peak of 400 to 170. The number of asylum seekers housed in hotels fell to just under 21,000 by the end of March, down from 30,700 at the end of December.

"I think we're on course to meet our pledge to get out of asylum hotels by the end of the Parliament," Mahmood said. The previous Conservative government abandoned plans for an asylum centre at Linton-on-Ouse in 2022 following local opposition and a legal challenge. RAF Barnham served as a secret nuclear weapons storage facility during the Cold War.

Callum Banthorpe, who bought his first home in Barnham for £180,000 in January, said the village lacks infrastructure for a sudden influx of 1,250 people.