Councils launch legal challenges as Home Office reveals plans to accommodate asylum seekers at old RAF bases

Newly unveiled Home Office plans to accommodate asylum seekers at two disused airfields in Lincolnshire and Essex have been met with immediate legal threats from the two councils affected.

Braintree District Council responded today (29 March) by applying to the High Court for an interim injunction in an attempt to block the Home Office’s plans to accommodate asylum seekers on a disused airfield in Wethersfield.

West Lindsey District Council has meanwhile said it has put measure in place for a legal challenge over the proposed use of RAF Scampton.

Braintree’s legal threat came following Immigration minister Robert Jenrick's announcement of the plan in the Commons earlier today. Jenrick said the Home Office will use the site in Essex alongside two other sites in Lincolnshire and East Sussex to provide accommodation to several thousand asylum seekers.

He added that the Government is also continuing to explore accommodating asylum seekers in “vessels”, all in an effort to move away from the current policy of housing asylum seekers in hotels, which is reported to cost £6m a day.

A spokesperson for Braintree said the council’s view “remains that Wethersfield Airfield is an unsuitable site, given the lack of capacity in local services, its isolated location, the size of the site and the fact that the scale of the development proposed could have a significant adverse impact upon the local community".

For the past two weeks, officers at Braintree have been urgently seeking clarification from the Home Office on the plans, the council said.

“We have been exploring all legal options available to us to challenge the Home Office on their decision making and challenge the plans from going ahead.”

Braintree decided to apply for the injunction following legal advice. The matter is expected to be listed before the High Court within the next seven days.

Meanwhile, West Lindsey District Council has announced it has “put measures in place to take necessary legal action” against the Home Office over the decision to use RAF Scampton.

Responding to Jenrick’s announcement, West Lindsey’s MP, Sir Edward Leigh, said that the moment this is confirmed, West Lindsey District Council “will issue an immediate judicial review and injunction”.

West Lindsey has suggested that the Home Office’s decision would jeopardise a £300m plan to regenerate the airfield.

Sally Grindrod-Smith, Director of Planning, Regeneration and Communities at West Lindsey District Council, said: “We are extremely disappointed with today’s announcement, but we have been preparing for all eventualities. We are in constant dialogue with the Home Office to seek to demonstrate to them that RAF Scampton would not be an appropriate site for asylum accommodation.

“Any move to use the site for asylum seekers would likely curtail the nationally significant plans, which the council has been working on since 2018. Simultaneously we are considering all legal options, including urgent judicial review proceedings.”

Grindrod-Smith added that the council is working with public service authorities across Lincolnshire and has highlighted to the Home Office what it “considers to be a significant number of barriers for mobilising the site for asylum use”.

According to West Lindsey, the Home Office has committed to chairing a Lincolnshire multi-agency forum before any work starts on site.

The site in East Sussex is reported to be the Northeye site in Bexhill, a former prison and military training centre.

A joint statement from East Sussex County Council and Rother District Council said: “People in our communities are likely to have many questions about the government’s plans to house asylum seekers at the Northeye site….

“Rother District Council and East Sussex County Council will work together, and with all our local partners, to understand and assess in more detail the impact this would have on local communities.

“We will also share this analysis with the government and work with them to ensure the Home Office addresses all issues identified.”

Adam Carey