Politicians vote against motion calling for a stop to asylum seeker hotels

Ted Peskett, local democracy reporter

Local politicians voted against calls to stop the use of hotels and other accommodation in Cardiff for asylum seekers following a heated debate.

Cardiff Council councillors discussed a motion put forward by the local authority’s Conservative group on Thursday, September 25, which proposed “taking all steps” to “make it clear that Cardiff will no longer house asylum seekers that have entered the United Kingdom illegally”.

The motion also called for the council’s planning department to judge whether any hotels housing asylum seekers have the necessary planning permission and for officers to seek legal advice on using injunctions and stop notices to close hotels for asylum seekers.

‘Shameful’

Councillors from across the chamber at County Hall criticised the Conservatives’ motion with one calling it “shameful” and another saying it was a “disgraceful attack on some of the most vulnerable people in our society”.

Conservative councillor Calum Davies, who proposed the motion, said there is “often frustration” about the use of hotels because they are housing “unvetted individuals” when it “should actually be a commercial hotel”.

He went on to criticise the UK Government for not reassuring people about the use of hotels and for securing private rented sector accommodation to house asylum seekers in.

Cllr Davies added: “There are over 9,000 households, not individuals but households, on the housing waiting list in Cardiff alone.

“In addition to that a whole generation are being robbed of a chance to afford a house as price have been allowed to sky-rocket.

“The council rightly celebrates its intent to build thousands of new council homes but all of that progress is being wiped out by the Home Office’s property acquisition project.”

The Home Office did not confirm whether or not it was purchasing residential or commercial premises in Cardiff to house asylum seekers.

‘Chaos’

However a spokesman said the government has inherited an asylum system “in chaos” and the Home Office has taken urgent action over the past year to fix it, adding that it has doubled the rate of asylum decision-making and reduced the amount of money spent on hotels.

A local council managed to win a temporary injunction banning the use of a hotel in Epping, Essex, from being used to house asylum seekers.

However the Home Office challenged the High Court ruling and the Court of Appeal eventually overturned the injunction.

If it had gone ahead the High Court ruling would have stopped 138 asylum seekers from being housed in the Bell Hotel beyond September 12.

The Liberal Democrats group at Cardiff Council proposed an amendment to the Conservatives’ motion on accommodation for asylum seekers, noting the right people have under international law to claim asylum.

Backlog

It also called on the UK Government to step up its efforts to tackle people-smuggling, tackle the asylum backlog, and lift the ban on asylum seekers working if they’ve been waiting more than three months for a decision on their claim.

The leader of the Liberal Democrats at Cardiff Council, Cllr Rodney Berman, said: “I’ll start by saying that I consider myself privileged to be able to stand before you as a citizen of this country.

“I am able to do so because my great-grandparents all fled here around the start of the 20th century to escape the pogroms that were taking place against the Jewish community within the then Russian Empire.”

He later added: “We all want to minimise the numbers coming to the UK across the channel in small boats.

“We all want to minimise the the number of asylum seekers having to be housed in hotels including here in Cardiff.

“It’s just that we propose quite different ways to solve these problems.”

Labour councillor Peter Wong said in reference to the Conservative motion: “It is disappointing to see in this current climate good intelligent people once again leaning to a divisive narrative when they should know better.”

He went on to say the motion leaned into a “politics of fear and division” when “we as councillors should be standing up to it”.

Liberal Democrat councillor Imran Latif said the motion was a “disgraceful attack on some of the most vulnerable people in our society” and people seeking asylum only make up a “tiny fraction of the population”.

UK Government data shows that the number of asylum seekers arriving to the UK in small boats has increased in recent years.

Between 2018 and June 2025 about 168,000 people arrived in small boats and 95% of these people applied for asylum.

However this makes up a small fraction of the level of immigration to the UK during this period.

In the year ending December 2024 immigration was at 880,000 people according to Office of National Statistics (ONS) estimates.

This figure was at its highest in the year ending December 2023 when the estimated level of immigration was 1,265,000 people.

UK Government statistics show there were 88,700 asylum applications relating to 111,100 people in the year to June 2025.

Home office data

Cardiff takes in the most asylum seekers in Wales, according to Home Office data.

At June 30, 2025, there was a total of 1,982 asylum seekers in Cardiff.

This includes people who came over through the Homes for Ukraine pathway (468) and the Afghan Resettlement Programme (72).

Of the remaining 1,442 supported asylum seekers Home Office data shows 76 were housed in ‘initial accommodation’, 1,270 were housed in ‘disposal accommodation’, 76 were housed in ‘contingency accommodation’, which is temporary accommodation in hotels, and 20 were given financial support but no accommodation.

Compared to earlier in the year this represents a decrease in the number of asylum seekers being housed in Cardiff.

According to Home Office data there were a total of 2,029 asylum seekers in Cardiff from all the asylum pathways.

Of this number 91 were in hotels.

A Home Office spokesman said: “This government inherited an asylum system in chaos with tens of thousands of individuals stuck in hotels waiting for their claims to be heard.

“We have taken urgent action over the past year to fix that system, doubling the rate of asylum decision-making and reducing the amount of money spent on asylum hotels by almost a billion pounds in the last financial year.

“We will continue to work closely with community partners across the country as we look to fix this broken system together and close every hotel by the end of this Parliament.”