Milton Keynes: Two asylum hotels to return to original use

Two asylum hotels are being closed down and returned to their original use, according to a city's MP.

Milton Keynes North MP Ben Everitt said Harben House hotel in Newport Pagnell and Woughton House Hotel would "return to normal hotels".

The Conservative MP said they were no longer needed because of falling numbers of asylum seekers.

They will leave the two hotels and be moved to other locations.

In August, it was revealed a convicted criminal had been given the contract to accommodate 270 asylum seekers at Harben House, which he owned.

That contract was suspended, but the Home Office has now confirmed it has been terminated.

A spokesperson from Ben Everitt's office told the BBC that Harben House only housed a mother and baby for a couple of weeks.

They also confirmed 99 bed spaces were used at Woughton House Hotel.

In a letter to the Milton Keynes MP, the Home Office minister Tom Pursglove said: "We have brought forward more appropriate forms of asylum accommodation, including large, disused military sites and the Bibby Stockholm [the boat moored off Dorset]."

The letter explained that existing residents would be given a minimum of four days notice in advance of being moved to "other parts of our asylum estate".

Mr Everitt said: "We can do this because all of our hard work on immigration is working.

"Small boat arrivals were down by 36% last year and we changed the law so people coming here illegally can't claim asylum in the UK."

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