Asylum seekers housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping face being moved within a fortnight after a High Court judge granted Epping Forest District Council a temporary injunction blocking the site’s use for migrant accommodation.
The ruling, handed down on Tuesday afternoon, rejected a government bid to delay proceedings and ordered that the Bell Hotel be cleared of its current occupants within 14 days.
The decision follows weeks of tension in the town, including protests outside the hotel after Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, an asylum seeker staying at the site, was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. He denies the allegation and is due to stand trial later this month.
Council arguments
Representing the council, Philip Coppel KC told the court that the hotel’s use for asylum housing was a breach of planning rules and had caused “great anxiety” to local residents.
He said: “The problem is getting out of hand… The hotel is no more a hotel [to asylum seekers] than a borstal to a young offender.”
The council’s case rested on the argument that the building was not being used for its intended purpose as a commercial hotel.
Hotel response
Lawyers for Somani Hotels Limited, which owns the property, argued that the injunction was “draconian” and would cause “hardship” for those living there.
Counsel Piers Riley-Smith said contracts with the Home Office to house asylum seekers had become a “financial lifeline” for the hotel, which was just 1% occupied by paying guests in August 2022.
He also claimed the arrangement had been made following advice from the Home Office and pointed out that the hotel had previously housed migrants between 2020–2021 and again from 2022–2024 without formal enforcement action by the council.
What happens next
Somani Hotels has confirmed it intends to appeal the ruling, but for now the injunction means no new asylum seekers can be accepted at the site and current residents must leave within two weeks.
The case has exposed the growing strain between local authorities and central government over the use of hotels as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers, with campaigners warning of a wider crisis as councils turn to the courts.
