People removed from Mansfield hotel to house asylum seekers were not homeless, council says

The Home Office and its contractor Serco placed 34 people into the hotel – which is not being named as per Home Office guidance – on November 12 as they tackle an unprecedented backlog in asylum claims.

At the time Coun Ben Bradley, Mansfield MP and Nottinghamshire Council leader, described the hotel as “not the right area” to house them.

He said three people were “turfed out” of the hotel and then presented themselves to Mansfield Council as homeless.

However, the district council has revealed three assessments later took place, none met the criteria to be classed as homeless rough sleepers and they have since found alternative accommodation.

It follows claims from local politicians that both Serco and the Home Office were not handling the situation well and had not communicated properly with local authorities.

Coun Bradley said today, November 29, he is meeting with ministers to discuss the hotel and revealed the asylum seekers are still on site.

Earlier this month, he said: “It’s incredibly frustrating.

“They have turfed out residents already in there for temporary accommodation and who have presented themselves as homeless.

“It’s not on. There’s a bigger picture here, which is tackling the issue and stopping people from coming.

“But when it comes to communication, they’ve picked an area of town that’s not right and is not the right provision.

“They’ve not told us about it, they’ve not told us what services we need to put around it and made people homeless in Mansfield as a result.”

However, a new district council report revealed the people who presented themselves as homeless were self-funding their hotel stay.

It said it does not use hotels for homeless cases and would know if the hotel was being used as temporary accommodation.

The issue will be discussed by the council’s overview and scrutiny community services committee on December 6.

In a report, Paul Dawson, council housing solutions team leader, said: “The placement of asylum seekers in a local hotel did not lead to homeless families being displaced.

“As an authority, we do not use hotels for homeless cases and any other local authority placing applicants out of their area is legally bound to inform us when a placement is made.

“The council had three initial approaches from those displaced from the hotel.

“However, none were homeless under homeless legislation; all were self-funding at the hotel and found alternative accommodation.”

The Mansfield hotel is one of many sites across the UK being used by the Home Office and contractors like Serco to bring down the asylum backlog.

Serco said earlier this month it “did not remove existing residents from the hotel”.

It says people are asked to leave sites “for the safety and wellbeing” of people in its care, after recent activities from some far-right groups.

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

“There are currently more than 37,000 asylum-seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer £5.6 million a day.

“The use of hotels is a short-term solution and we are working hard with councils to find appropriate accommodation.”