Fury as plan for 930 asylum seekers in small village moves ahead with Home Office signing £3.4m deal with construction giant

Published: 08:13 EST, 12 November 2026 | Updated: 08:38 EST, 12 November 2026 Residents of a tiny Suffolk village planning a 'Piddington-style' referendum on leaving the UK have been told plans to house 930 asylum seekers at a former RAF base have moved ahead.Approval has not yet been granted to turn the former nuclear weapons base in Barnham, Suffolk, into migrant accommodation but a £3.4million contract with construction giant Kier was signed last month, it has now been revealed.Residents living in the Domesday village of Barnham, just three miles south of Thetford, said they could be overwhelmed if plans were approved to house lone, male migrants.They plan to hold their own 'Piddington-style' referendum and an encampment has been set up outside the gates with rotating protesters.Placards read: 'Thetford says no!' and 'Don't trust Home Office - it's all lies'.The £3,400,411.27 contract is allocated to Kier for what the Home Office calls 'Refurbishment and Modular Solutions' at the site.Cllr John Bauer, chairman of Barnham Parish Council, said: 'It's typical with any Government project.'They're happy to send £3.4m when there is no guarantee this is going to go ahead. Protesters have displayed placards reading 'Thetford says no!' and 'Don't trust Home Office – it's all lies' outside RAF Barnham, where plans are being considered to accommodate hundreds of asylum seekers Residents of Barnham are planning a 'Piddington-style' referendum in protest against the proposed asylum seeker accommodation at the former RAF base People take part in a protest outside RAF Barnham in Thetford as they hold up placards 'I would have thought in these times of financial pressure, the government might have wanted to be more careful with their spending.'There's been a complete lack of transparency from the Home Office. It would have been nice to have known.'The contract, which began on October 19, will run until January 25, 2027.RAF Barnham was earmarked by the Home Office in June as part of proposals for accommodation for 3,750 migrants across three sites.The Home Office intends to use Urgent Crown Development, a fast-track planning route which bypasses the local council.But no planning application has been formally lodged for Barnham, which is home to less than 600 people and has no shop or pub.The Home Office intends to use the 179-hectare site for at least ten years.Cllr Bauer added: 'We've seen what happens when there is a vacuum of information up the road in Thetford.' The former RAF Barnham site, which could be transformed into accommodation for 930 asylum seekers under controversial Home Office proposals. The village of Barnham has no local pub or shop and limited public transport, with residents questioning whether it has the infrastructure to support a large asylum accommodation siteProtests over the proposals sparked riots in nearby Thetford over the summer where properties believed to house migrants were targeted over three consecutive nights in August.Five men were removed from homes after a baying mob stormed the properties as part of the anti-asylum seeker protests.Homes were pelted with eggs, and one police officer was bitten during the unrest.In the following nights, around 100 protesters flocked to alleged addresses of HMOs believed to be housing migrants while arrests were made.The village has no local shop or pub, limited public transport and a small rural primary school, with residents arguing it lacks the infrastructure to accommodate hundreds of additional people. Residents have expressed concern that asylum seekers could use Barnham Common, a popular dog-walking area, to walk into Thetford town centre.RAF Barnham was most recently used for police officers to receive riot training. A decision on RAF Barnham is expected this autumn.