Council leader in plea to Home Office over city asylum seeker hotel

NEWCASTLE City Council is in active talks with the Home Office to end the use of a city hotel to house asylum seekers.

- DANIEL HOLLAND Local democracy reporter

City council leader Karen Kilgour confirmed on Friday that civic centre officials are speaking to the government about closing down a city centre hotel currently used as asylum seeker accommodation.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged in her Spending Review earlier this summer that Labour would stop hotels being used to house asylum seekers.

There have been major concerns about the cost of such hotels, with a recent National Audit Office report estimating the cost contracts signed in 2019 with private companies including Mears and Serco will be £15.3bn over 10 years, and the living conditions inside them.

Coun Kilgour called in June for Newcastle City Council to be given more powers to help overhaul the system.