Asylum hotels are ‘flashpoints’ for community tensions across England

Poor planning and weak communication around asylum hotels are fuelling tensions in communities across England, according to new research.

It’s no secret that some people in this country have a problem with asylum seekers. In July 2025, nationals gathered to protest against hotels being used for such individuals.

However, new findings from the Institute for Public Policy Research indicate concerns are less about people seeking asylum and more about how hotels are introduced and managed, with residents more likely to object when they feel excluded from decisions. 

Published on Monday, the research comes as the government has announced the closure of 11 asylum hotels, part of its wider commitment to end their use by the end of this parliament. 

To conduct the study, experts carried out focus groups in six areas of England including Liverpool, Plymouth, Hillingdon, Derby, Tamworth and Wakefield. 

Participants said they were often given limited information about when hotels would be used, how long for, and what alternatives were being considered.

Some also linked their concerns to wider local issues, including housing pressures, crime and disorder, and the decline of high streets.

In Wakefield, one resident described a hotel previously used for asylum accommodation as a loss to the community, saying it had been ‘a place of employment, a venue for events’ and asking: ‘What is the community getting back from the hotel?’

Meanwhile, in Tamworth, where an asylum hotel became a focus of unrest, one participant said location played a role in rising tensions: ‘If you’ve got a group of asylum seekers, why put them in the centre of the community, which is already a tinderbox … You might as well just put a big target on it.’

Lucy Mort, principal research fellow and head of qualitative research at IPPR, said: ‘In many cases, people were clear that their frustrations weren’t really about people seeking asylum themselves.

‘They were about how asylum accommodation is being managed – decisions that feel imposed, communication that comes too late, and a system that doesn’t feel transparent, often in communities where people are already facing housing insecurity, and a wider feeling that the system is unfair.’