Labour ministers are reviewing the possibility of using Ministry of Defence land to provide temporary accommodation for asylum seekers, less than a year after similar plans were dropped on cost grounds.
Defence minister Luke Pollard said military planners have been deployed into Border Security Command and the Home Office to assess military and non-military sites that could be stood up as temporary but adequate accommodation to speed 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," Pollard said. He added that the prime minister wants asylum hotels closed "as do I, as does the British public," and that the military review is intended to enable transfers from hotels into temporary sites more quickly.
The renewed interest includes RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, a historic base that under the previous Conservative government had been considered for a large-scale accommodation project. Almost £50 million was previously spent on plans to convert Scampton into an asylum reception site. Under those proposals the site was at one stage expected to hold about 2,000 people before plans were scaled back to around 800. Labour ministers discontinued the plans in September 2024 citing what they called unacceptable costs.
Labour also ended the use of the Bibby Stockholm, a floating accommodation barge that had been brought to Portland, Dorset, under the Conservative government as part of efforts to reduce the number of asylum hotels.
Pollard said the review covers a range of MoD assets and other locations and aims to establish temporary accommodation that meets standards for safety and adequacy. He said the deployment of military planners will support decisions on where the MoD can assist in creating such capacity.
Ministers have faced sustained pressure from businesses and local authorities to reduce the number of asylum hotels, which the government has described as expensive and unsuitable for long-term use. The government says closing hotels and replacing them with more controlled temporary sites will reduce costs and improve oversight.
Labour's reconsideration comes amid broader efforts to manage a backlog in asylum processing and growing public concern about accommodation and costs. Officials have said any use of MoD land would be temporary and subject to legal, environmental and planning checks.
The role of military planners in civilian accommodation arrangements has precedent in contingency planning. Any move to reopen or repurpose sites such as Scampton would require further ministerial decisions and funding approvals, and could face scrutiny from local councils and campaign groups concerned about heritage, community impact and the welfare of people seeking asylum.