Home Office confirms asylum seekers will be moved out of Rothwell House Hotel

Home Office officials have confirmed that asylum seekers will be moved out of a Rothwell hotel by the end of January 2024 at the latest.

In an email sent to Philip Hollobone, MP for Kettering, the government said that Rothwell House Hotel was on the list of the next 50 sites that would soon no longer be used as asylum seeker accommodation.

No exact date has been given for the move. The contract for the Bridge Street hotel to be used as an asylum hotel started in April 2023, for a term of one year, but the Home Office will now cut that period by four months.

Mr Hollobone said: “This really is good news for local residents in Rothwell and when the asylum seekers leave it will be important that the hotel gets back up and running again for the local community as soon as possible. It is located slap bang in the middle of Rothwell town centre and its return to use as a normal hotel will be of huge benefit to the local economy and a relief to the whole town.”

It is believed that between 25 to 50 asylum seekers are housed at the Rothwell House Hotel, with numbers changing on a weekly basis.

In a written reply the Home Office told the MP: “I am therefore pleased to inform you that the Home Office is now terminating the contract with OYO Rothwell House as asylum accommodation, and they will cease being used by the end of January 2024 reflecting the contractual notice period on this property.

"Residents currently accommodated in the hotel will be moving to other parts of our asylum estate. They will be notified a minimum of five days in advance and moved by the Home Office in line with our existing published policies. Whilst we expect impacts on local authorities to be minimal, we are putting in place additional resource to work with our accommodation providers and local partners to manage this process and minimise disruption, particularly focusing on families.”

Asylum seekers were suddenly moved from the Royal Hotel at the end of September with all residents now being accommodated in other facilities outside Northamptonshire.

At least two of the asylum seekers contacted friends they had made in Kettering, saying they had been moved out of their rooms at such short notice that they couldn’t retrieve their belongings. The men have been moved to a hostel in the north of England.

The Government has been spending £3.6bn a year housing asylum seekers as they wait for thousands of claims to be processed.