Labour has begun reviewing the use of Ministry of Defence land to provide temporary accommodation for migrants, Defence Minister Luke Pollard said, reopening consideration of sites that were abandoned under the new government less than a year ago.
Pollard told reporters that military planners had been tasked to look again at MoD and non-military sites as the government seeks to accelerate the closure of asylum hotels. "The Home Office has... decided against accommodation that the Ministry of Defence offered in the past. But we're looking at all of them again at the moment," he said. "The Prime Minister wants all asylum hotels closed, as do I, as does the British public. And by standing up temporary accommodation on those sites, we can support the closure of those asylum hotels even faster."
Pollard said a military planning team had been deployed into Border Security Command and the Home Office to identify where military and other sites could host temporary but "adequate accommodation" to enable transfers from asylum hotels. He said the review could include RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, the historic base once home to the Royal Air Force's 617 Squadron, known as the Dambusters.
The potential revival of plans follows an earlier decision by Labour in September 2024 to drop proposals to use certain MoD sites on value-for-money grounds. Under the previous Conservative government, almost £50 million was spent preparing Scampton to receive asylum seekers, with initial proposals to house about 2,000 people later reduced to around 800. Labour discontinued those plans last year, saying the project would not provide "value for money."
The government also ended the use of a floating accommodation barge, the Bibby Stockholm, which had been berthed at Portland in Dorset under Tory initiatives to reduce reliance on asylum hotels. The current review is part of a broader push to move asylum seekers out of hotel accommodation that has been used in recent years while claims are processed.
Officials have not announced any firm decisions or a timetable for reopening or repurposing specific bases. Pollard framed the review as an operational response to the government's objective of closing asylum hotels more quickly, rather than an immediate commitment to particular sites.
The debate over using military land for temporary accommodation comes amid sustained political and public attention on migration and border security. Ministers have sought to reduce costs associated with long-term hotel use and to manage growing numbers of asylum seekers arriving in the United Kingdom, while campaigners and local residents have raised concerns about suitability, cost and community impact for proposals to repurpose former defence sites.
Scampton has particular resonance because of its wartime history: the RAF's 617 Squadron formed there in 1943 and from the base launched Lancaster bombers that carried out raids on German dams during the Second World War. Any move to repurpose historic sites for temporary accommodation would be subject to further ministerial and departmental consideration, officials said, as the MoD and Home Office carry out the current review.