North Northamptonshire Council's Kettering asylum seeker hostel injunction bid dismissed

A council says it is considering its options after a High Court bid to block a Kettering hotel from being used to house asylum seekers was dismissed.

On Friday (November 4) North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) fought Home Office plans for up to 150 men to stay at the historic Royal Hotel in Market Place.

They applied for an interim injunction, aiming to stop the proposal and allow more time to look at alternative locations for asylum seekers to stay at while their refugee claim is assessed.

That application has since been dismissed but council leader Cllr Jason Smithers (Con) said that a temporary stop notice they also made remains in force. The notice orders the venue not to be used as an asylum seeker hostel, alleging a breach of planning control, and is valid for 28 days from November 4.

Cllr Smithers said: “North Northamptonshire Council takes its responsibility to asylum seekers very seriously. The council has previously offered to have discussions with the Home Office to help identify suitable hotels in the area and we welcome any information they can provide that will allow us to locate suitable alternative accommodation.

"We do not feel that the Royal Hotel in Kettering is the appropriate place to accommodate asylum seekers for a number of reasons. We do not feel the proposals have been properly considered to ensure the best possible welfare can be provided to asylum seekers and the local communities in which they are housed. We are now considering our options in light of the injunction’s dismissal by the High Court.”

The temporary stop notice served on Payman Holdings 5 Limited, which is placed in the hotel’s windows, alleges that there has been an ‘unauthorised’ change of use of the site. It warns of the risk of prosecution – with a fine of up to £20,000 in a magistrates’ court – if it is contravened.

The Home Office plan was brought to the council’s attention on October 27. Cllr Smithers said they had been made aware that asylum seekers could potentially have been coming to the hotel on November 4 – the day they applied for the interim injunction.

In a statement the council said emergency injunction applications are considered by courts without notice to the defendants and without the ability for them to make representations until a later date. They said the court determined that they did not want to consider the application on this basis and that all parties should instead be given an opportunity to be heard at the outset. The council statement said their application was dismissed on this basis and that the merits of it were not considered.

Amid criticism of the council’s decision to use taxpayer cash on the failed injunction bid, Cllr Smithers said they had spent under £200 on it – and said it could have been a much bigger issue had the asylum seekers arrived that night.

He said: "We are happy to engage and to help but it’s about having the right location.”

NNC is now considering whether it should make a further application for an injunction on notice and is awaiting the outcomes of other local authorities who have also taken legal action. Other councils, including Fenland, Ipswich and East Riding of Yorkshire, made similar applications.

Kettering MP Philip Hollobone previously said the hotel is ‘completely unsuitable’ for asylum seeker accommodation and hit out at the ‘ill-conceived plan’, which he said was ‘asking for trouble’.

Cllr Anne Lee (Lab, Windmill) said some Labour councils have welcomed asylum seekers after building networks with voluntary organisations and churches, and that the local mosque is willing to help. But she said that because the system is ‘broken’ healthcare, housing and social services are so understaffed and underfunded that there ‘does not appear to be any room at the inn’.

The hotel, which once welcomed Queen Victoria, had been bought by investment firm Paymán Investments, who wanted to restore it to its former glory and make it a community hub, in a £2.2m deal last year.

A Home Office spokesman said they do not comment on operational arrangements for individual sites used for asylum accommodation.

The spokesman said: “The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under incredible strain.

“The use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable – there are currently more than 37,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer £5.6m a day. The use of hotels is a short-term solution and we are working hard with local authorities to find appropriate accommodation.”