Expert suggests solution so UK can close migrant hotels - and it's being considered

The government is considering an alternative proposal to migrant hotels, it is understood, after the cost has become "cripplingly expensive". The head of an Oxfordshire housing association has put forward an idea on how to empty asylum hotels by 2029, by moving them to social housing. Kate Wareing, Chief Executive of Soha Housing, claims the cost could be cut from about £54,000 a year to just £4,000, per asylum seeker, if they were moved into individual properties.

Ms Wareing has suggested that the Government should pay councils and housing associations to buy more properties, instead of paying private contractors to provide hotel rooms. According to the BBC, this proposal is currently being discussed with several government departments, and officials are talking to nearly 200 local authorities about a series of pilot projects.

More than 58,000 migrants have entered the UK by small boat since Labour took office, with at least 36,000 making the crossing so far this year.

Under the previous Government, Serco, Clearsprings Ready Homes and Mears were handed contracts to provide accommodation for the illegal arrivals, yet the influx has led to hotels being used.

At its peak, 400 hotels were housing illegal migrants - 210 are still in use, housing around 32,000.

Both hotels and military bases are used as "emergency accommodation" when there is not enough "dispersal accommodation".

Rakib Ehsan, a senior fellow at the centre-right Policy Exchange think tank, believes that putting them in a military camp could be useful on a temporary basis.

"At least they would be somewhat separated from local communities," he told the state broadcaster.

"If we look at the demographic characteristics associated with small boat migrants in particular who went to the UK, they tend to originate from parts of the world which have a very different view when it comes to the treatment of women and girls."

Two former Ministry of Defence sites, one near Folkestone and one in Wethersfield, are being used for asylum seekers.

Many furious Brits have taken to the streets in protest against the use of migrant hotels, with the Bell Hotel in Epping and the Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf being the epicenter of demonstrations.

A spokesperson told the BBC: "We are looking at a range of more sustainable, cost-effective and locally led sites including disused accommodation, industrial and ex-military sites, so we can reduce the impact on communities and taxpayers."