Burnham suggests wealthier areas must play their part in housing asylum seekers

Labour has pledged to stop using asylum hotels, a costly form of accommodation that has become a focal point for anti-migrant protests.

The government has sought to house migrants at military sites across the country instead, announcing in June that it planned to open three more including the site in Bicester, Oxfordshire.

The plans have prompted protests there, with residents of nearby Piddington voting to stage a symbolic referendum on leaving the UK.

Burnham said on Tuesday that he would listen to and address the concerns being raised.

“I don’t know the issue yet in detail, but in some ways, as I understand it, it is about creating secure space,” he said.

“We understand people’s concerns and I will look into the issues raised by the good people of Piddington.”

But he added: “I do believe all parts of the country need to work, to play their part.”

After winning the Makerfield by-election in June, Burnham promised to end “HMO Britain” and said he would change Britain’s asylum accommodation system.

HMOs, or houses in multiple occupation, have been widely used by government contractors to house asylum seekers, often in lower income, urban areas.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Wednesday morning, immigration minister Anna Turley said the number of hotels had gone from a peak of 400 under the Conservatives to 160 under Labour, and pledged all of them would close by 2029.

Turley said the government had already saved £1bn by closing hotels and opening alternative, secure sites for asylum seekers, including two former military bases, student accommodation and former industrial sites around the country.

“I think this is about fairness and we won’t be asking anybody to take more than they can, and we won’t be asking anyone to take more than their fair share,” she said.

“What we’ve seen in the past is places like Blackpool, and other communities around the country where housing is perhaps cheaper and more plentiful, have had to take more than their fair share of asylum seekers,” she added.

“That’s put a huge burden on local communities and created real civil unrest, so we want to make sure that we’re managing the system much better in a more sustained way that’s reducing the impact on local communities.

“It’s important that everybody plays their fair share in that, and it’s about making sure that no one community is more over-pressured or overburdened than others.”

Last week, there were anti-immigration demonstrations in the town of Thetford, Norfolk, with protesters attempting to enter homes where they believed asylum seekers were living.

In response to Burnham’s interview, Philp reiterated the Conservatives’ policy of leaving the European Convention on Human Rights in order to deport migrants to their country of origin or a safe third country.

“Andy Burnham just doesn’t get it,” he wrote on X.

“Illegal immigrants should all be deported within a week of arrival – to their country of origin or a safe third country like Rwanda.”

Government statistics, external showed there were 97,519 people in receipt of asylum support at the end of March, with 20,885 in hotel accommodation.

The figures added that 72,768 people were in other accommodation, including “dispersal accommodation” – which normally means houses in the community.

The remaining 3,866 people were in receipt of subsistence support only, according to the government.

The regions and nations with the highest number of asylum seekers in receipt of Home Office support included 19,578 in the north-west of England, 13,687 in London, 11,969 in the West Midlands and 8,635 in Yorkshire and the Humber.

The Home Office said the regions with the most supported asylum seekers as a proportion of their overall population were the north-east and north-west of England, with 26 and 25 supported people per 10,000 residents respectively.

It added the local authorities with the highest numbers of supported asylum seekers within them were Glasgow city (3,870), Birmingham (2,142), Liverpool (2,053), Coventry (1,712) and Belfast (1,607).

Burnham, during his time serving as the mayor of Greater Manchester, threatened to block the region from housing any more asylum seekers in 2018.

He complained about the government’s dispersal system and said Greater Manchester’s public services could not continue to support “disproportionate” numbers of people compared with elsewhere in the country.

Burnham at the time said the north-west of England was hosting 25% of the national population of asylum applicants who require housing and support – with Greater Manchester housing 70% of the region’s numbers.

The then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid replied by promising to work towards a fairer distribution.