UK plans three military sites for 3,750 asylum seekers as hotel use winds down

The Home Office is lining up three Ministry of Defence sites in Oxfordshire, Suffolk and North Yorkshire that could house about 3,750 asylum seekers if planning permission is granted. The locations are MoD Bicester, RAF Barnham and RAF Linton-on-Ouse, and officials have already opened discussions without yet securing approval.

The move sits inside a broader push to reduce reliance on asylum hotels and shift more people into larger, more controlled accommodation sites. Labour has pledged to end hotel use, which has become a flashpoint for anti-migrant protests, while the government is also seeking to keep two existing military sites in the system for longer: Crowborough Army Camp in East Sussex until 2030 and Wethersfield in Essex beyond 2027.

That shift has accelerated under new Home Office powers. From 2 June 2026, the department said it was using a power to provide accommodation to destitute, or soon to be destitute, asylum seekers. The policy change has been paired with military-site factsheets that frame these bases as temporary accommodation for people who would otherwise have nowhere to go, even as ministers try to pull down the pressure on the wider asylum estate.

The North Yorkshire site is the most politically sensitive of the three. RAF Linton-on-Ouse was previously considered for an asylum centre, and a 2022 plan to house up to 1,500 single men there was abandoned after fierce local opposition and a legal challenge from the council. Current reporting says the base could now be used for around 1,200 single men, reviving a fight that had already forced the government to back off once.

Other military sites show how contentious the model has already become. The Home Office updated its Wethersfield factsheet on 28 May 2026, and Wealden District Council said Crowborough was close to full occupation in mid-June, with around 540 asylum seekers on site at any one time. RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire became another major flashpoint when the local council challenged the plan, and earlier reporting put the cost at up to £260 million over three years. The new plans suggest military accommodation is becoming less of an emergency measure and more of a standing tool in asylum management, with local planning, policing and council services now central to how far the policy can stretch.