The Home Office has a legal duty to provide accommodation for asylum seekers. Ministers have been unable to stem the flow of undocumented migrants arriving on small boats seeking asylum with around 28,000 reaching the U.K. so far this year.
Epping Forest applied for the urgent injunction, warning there was a clear risk of further escalating community tensions without action.
Lawyers for the council argued in court that the Bell Hotel owner had not sought the view of the local planning authority about how the hotel was being used, something the judge said in his ruling had “sidestepped the public scrutiny and explanation which would otherwise have taken place if an application for planning permission or for a certificate of lawful use had been made.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s department had challenged the application for an injunction, warning it would “substantially impact” the government’s ability to house asylum seekers in hotels — but the judge ruled migrants must be gone by 4 p.m. on September 12.
Border Security Minister Angela Eagle said the government would “carefully consider” the judgement.
“We will continue working with local authorities and communities to address legitimate concerns,” she said, adding that work to close all asylum hotels by the end of the current parliament was continuing.