Court Allows Asylum Seekers to Remain at Epping Hotel

Asylum seekers can continue to stay at a hotel in Essex after a council lost a crucial legal battle in the High Court to remove them.

sarah

Nov 11, 2025 - 19:03

Court Allows Asylum Seekers to Remain at Epping Hotel

Epping Forest District Council had attempted to stop migrants from staying at The Bell Hotel in Epping, arguing that its owner had breached planning regulations.

Mr Justice Mould dismissed the claim on Tuesday, ruling that imposing an injunction was "not the correct way to enforce planning control".

A wave of protests took place outside the hotel in the summer after an asylum seeker staying there was arrested and later jailed for sexual offences.

The judge said he accepted that the "criminal behaviour of some of the asylum seekers" staying at the hotel had caused "fear of crime" among local residents.

But he rejected the idea that the hotel owner, Somani Hotels, had engaged in "flagrant or persistent abuse of planning control".

It was also stated that there was a "continuing need" to provide accommodation for asylum seekers whose claims are pending, "so that the Home Secretary can discharge his statutory duties".

A judge had previously granted the council an interim injunction in August, but this was later overturned in the Court of Appeal after intervention from the Home Office.

Its lawyers told the court that if Epping Forest District Council were granted an injunction to stop the 138 asylum seekers from staying there, it could encourage other local authorities to seek similar outcomes.

Tuesday's ruling overturned that and became the final decision on the hotel's operation.

Responding to the decision, the Conservatives said the court had "slapped the people of Epping in the face".

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: "The people of Epping have been silenced in their own town." A spokesperson for the Home Office said that this decision allowed them to continue the process of closing every asylum hotel under a "systematic, planned and ongoing programme".