What does the pledge mean? 

Asylum seekers (people awaiting a decision on an asylum application) who are destitute can apply to receive support from the government, including accommodation. People who apply for asylum support are housed in initial accommodation while their application is considered, and if their application for asylum support is granted, they are placed in dispersal accommodation until a final decision is made on their asylum claim.

Due to an increased number of asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their application in the UK in recent years, the government has had to use ‘contingency’ asylum accommodation in order to meet its obligation to provide housing for those who require it. This has primarily involved the use of hotels, although some asylum seekers have been housed in other types of contingency accommodation, including the Bibby Stockholm barge and in former military barracks.

Labour did not originally set out a specific timeframe to achieve this pledge and the Home Office did not offer one when we asked. But in June 2025, chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed the government intends to end “the costly use of hotels to house asylum seekers in this Parliament”, which is expected to end in 2029.

The Home Office routinely publishes quarterly data showing the number of asylum seekers in hotels, but not the number of hotels in use or their associated costs, figures for which are released on an ad-hoc basis.

What progress has been made?

We’re currently rating this pledge as “in progress”, because according to the latest available data, the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels is approximately 29% lower than when Labour entered government.

The number of hotels being used to house asylum seekers has also decreased, by around 13%.

According to former border security minister Dame Angela Eagle MP, 213 hotels were being used to house asylum seekers when Labour entered government in July 2024.

As of April 2026, the government said a total of 185 hotels remained in use.

The latest data on the number of asylum seekers being housed in hotels shows that the figure stood at 20,885 at the end of March 2026 (approximately 21% of all those in receipt of support). This is about a third lower than the 30,657 asylum seekers who were being housed in hotels at the end of December 2025, and around 29% lower than in June 2024, when the number was 29,561 (approximately 29% of all asylum seekers in receipt of support from the government at that time).

Questioned by MPs on the Home Affairs Committee in June 2025, Ms Eagle said the Home Office was exploring the use of “medium size” accommodation instead of hotels to house asylum seekers, such as “old student accommodation” or “old voided tower blocks”, saying it would be “cheaper to bring on board sites like that if you’re closing hotels”.

In a press release in April 2026, the government said it was “scaling up the use of large, basic accommodation sites to move people out of hotels for good.”

As part of the government’s Spending Review in June 2025, the chancellor assigned £200 million to the Home Office to “help end the costly use of asylum hotels in this Parliament and accelerate transformation of the asylum system by clearing the backlog, boosting appeals capacity and continuing to return those with no right to be here”.

The government estimates reforms to the asylum system will reduce asylum costs by “at least £1 billion per year by 2028‑29 compared with 2024-25”, although this is subject to “inherent uncertainty”.

The Home Office has not directly confirmed how much it estimates closing asylum hotels specifically will reduce overall asylum support costs by, although its latest accounts state £2.1 billion was spent on hotels in 2024/25, compared to £3.0 billion spent on hotels in 2023/24.