Call to stop housing asylum seekers in Cardiff hotels branded ‘disgraceful’.

The Conservatives’ motion to end the use of Cardiff hotels to shelter asylum seekers caused a heated debate in the council chamber at County Hall.

Following a heated debate, politicians voted against requests to ban asylum seekers from using Cardiff’s hotels and other accommodations.

On Thursday, September 25, Cardiff Council councillors debated a motion sponsored by the local authority’s Conservative group, which advocated “taking all steps” to “make it clear that Cardiff will no longer house asylum seekers who have entered the United Kingdom illegally”.

The resolution also asked the council’s planning department to determine whether any hotels sheltering asylum seekers have the requisite planning authority, and officers to obtain legal advice on using injunctions and stop notices to close hotels for asylum seekers.

Councillors from across the chamber at County Hall criticised the Conservatives’ move, with one calling it “shameful” and another calling it a “disgraceful attack on some of the most vulnerable people in our society” Conservative councillor Calum Davies, who sponsored the resolution, stated that there is “often frustration” with the use of hotels since they house “unvetted individuals” when they “should actually be a commercial hotel”.

He went on to criticise the UK government for failing to reassure people about the usage of hotels and for failing to provide private leased sector housing for asylum seekers. Cllr Davies continued: “There are nearly 9,000 homes, not people, on the housing waiting list in Cardiff alone.

“In addition, a whole generation is being robbed of the opportunity to own a home because prices have been allowed to skyrocket.” “The council rightly celebrates its intent to build thousands of new council homes but all of that progress is being wiped out by the Home Office’s property acquisition project.”

The Home Office did not clarify whether it was buying residential or commercial properties in Cardiff to shelter asylum seekers.

However, a spokesman stated that the government inherited a “in chaos” asylum system, and that the Home Office has taken immediate measures to reform it over the last year, including doubling the rate of asylum decision-making and reducing the amount of money spent on hotels.

A local council has obtained a temporary injunction prohibiting the use of a hotel in Epping, Essex, to host asylum seekers. However, the Home Office contested the High Court’s decision, and the Court of Appeal eventually overturned the injunction.

If it had gone ahead, the High Court order would have prevented 138 asylum seekers from being lodged at the Bell Hotel after September 12.

The Liberal Democrats on Cardiff Council offered an amendment to the Conservatives’ resolution on accommodation for asylum seekers, highlighting the right people have under international law to seek refuge.

It also urged the UK government to increase its efforts to combat people smuggling, address the asylum backlog, and eliminate the bar on asylum seekers working if they have been waiting more than three months for a judgement on their application.

Cllr Rodney Berman, the leader of the Liberal Democrats on Cardiff Council, stated: “I’ll begin by stating that I feel myself fortunate to be able to come before you as a citizen of this nation.

“I am able to do so because my great-grandparents all fled here around the start of the 20th century to escape the pogroms that were taking place against the Jewish community within the then Russian Empire.”

He subsequently added, “We all want to reduce the amount of small boats arriving in the UK via the channel. “We all want to reduce the number of asylum seekers being kept in hotels, especially here in Cardiff.

“It’s just that we propose quite different ways to solve these problems.” In response to the Conservative resolution, Labour councillor Peter Wong stated, “It is disappointing to see in this current climate good intelligent people once again leaning towards a divisive narrative when they should know better.”

He went on to argue that the motion tended towards a “politics of fear and division” when “we as councillors should be standing up to it”.

Imran Latif, a Liberal Democrat councillor, said the resolution was a “disgraceful attack on some of the most vulnerable people in our society,” adding that asylum seekers make up a “tiny fraction of the population.”

According to UK government data, the number of asylum seekers arriving in the UK on small boats has surged in recent years.

Between 2018 and June 2025, around 168,000 migrants landed in small boats, with 95% of them applying for asylum. However, this accounts for just a minor proportion of total immigration to the UK throughout this period.

According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), immigration totalled 880,000 persons in the fiscal year ending December 2024. This figure reached its peak in the year ending December 2023, when the predicted amount of immigration was 1,265,000 persons.

According to UK government figures, there were 88,700 asylum petitions for 111,100 people in the fiscal year ending in June 2025. Cardiff receives the most asylum seekers in Wales, according to Home Office figures. On June 30, 2025, there were 1,982 asylum seekers in Cardiff.

This includes persons who come over through the Homes for Ukraine (468) and Afghan Resettlement Program (72). According to Home Office data, of the remaining 1,442 supported asylum seekers, 76 were housed in ‘initial accomodation’, 1,270 in ‘disposal accomodation’, 76 in ‘contingency accomodation’, which is temporary hotel accommodation, and 20 were given financial support but no accommodation.

Compared to earlier this year, the number of asylum seekers housed in Cardiff has decreased. According to Home Office data, there were 2,029 asylum claimants in Cardiff throughout all asylum procedures. Of this total, 91 were in hotels.

A representative of the Home Office said: “This administration inherited an asylum system in disarray, with tens of thousands of people detained in hotels waiting for their cases to be considered.”

We have taken decisive measures to overhaul that system over the last year, increasing the rate of asylum decision-making and saving nearly a billion pounds on asylum lodging costs in the previous fiscal year.

“We will continue to work closely with community partners across the country as we look to fix this broken system together and close every hotel by the end of this Parliament.”

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