Council to revisit potential judicial review as it takes planning enforcement action over accommodation of asylum seekers in ex-student block

Coventry City Council has threatened revisiting its judicial review of the Home Office’s asylum dispersal policy, after having taken enforcement action to temporarily prevent asylum seekers from being accommodated in an empty city centre tower block.

In a statement detailing the enforcement action, the city council said placing asylum seekers in the building that was once student accommodation would constitute a change of use, which would require planning permission.

To block asylum seekers from being placed in the building, the council issued a 'planning notice', preventing the government's contractor Serco from placing people in the building for an initial 28 days.

Cllr David Welsh, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, said the council was left with no alternative but to pursue the notice.

"Serco already use three city hotels to provide temporary accommodation and we believe that being made to have more is disproportionate for a city our size," he said.

"Specialist health services are already struggling to support and manage the demand from those in existing hotels and further arrivals will require the commissioning of additional health provision, for which the source of funding is unclear."

According to Cllr Welsh, the decision to use the building was taken with no consultation with the council.

Cllr Welsh also hinted at resurrecting a judicial review challenge of the Home Office's dispersal policy that Coventry and six other West Midlands councils launched in September 2021 before withdrawing it in May 2022.

"This is yet another example of the unfair dispersal system that the Home Office is using," he said.

"As a city we are proud of our record of welcoming migrants and asylum seekers, but all parts of the country must step forward and play their part as currently Coventry and the West Midlands take a disproportionate amount.

"Only last year Coventry, along with seven other West Midlands councils, sought a judicial review against the Home Office over its dispersal policy – or moreover a lack of a coherent one."

The seven councils said they believed that government should immediately require, "not simply request," every single local authority in the UK to make an offer to accommodate a proportionate share of those seeking asylum in this country. But the councils shelved the legal challenge in May.

"This was paused as the Home Office told the High Court that they had a new policy that would be fairer, but actions speak louder than words and there is little evidence that this is the case, meaning we may have to revisit the judicial review process."

A number of other councils have taken similar action in moves to block asylum seekers from being accommodated in their areas.

In December 2022, the High Court granted Great Yarmouth Borough Council an extension of an interim injunction blocking asylum seekers from being placed in hotels in and around its seafront.

Great Yarmouth also argued that the use of the hotels constituted a change of use and that it clashed with its local plan, which pledges to encourage tourism in the area.

The Great Yarmouth decision was followed by a judicial review threat from East Lindsey District Council in January 2023, which contested a Home Office decision to place asylum seekers in hotels in Skegness.

In its pre-action protocol letter, East Lindsey claimed that the "unauthorised changes of use [of the hotels] have caused substantial harm" by depleting Skegness's stock of hotel accommodation for tourists and by harming its reputation as a family resort.

Adam Carey