Home Office gets £150million for more large-scale asylum centres, as Tories warn it shows Labour has 'no intention whatsoever' of stopping and deporting illegal immigrants

Published: 12:02 EDT, 28 October 2026 | Updated: 12:23 EDT, 28 October 2026 Labour will spend another £150million on new large-scale asylum accommodation centres on former military bases, Budget documents revealed.The Treasury said the extra funds would allow the Home Office to carry on closing controversial asylum hotels.But it also opens the prospect of more communities in rural Britain having large numbers of asylum seekers on their doorstep, in the wake of intense rows over existing centres at Wethersfield, Essex, and Crowborough, East Sussex.Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said of the new spending: ‘This shows the Government has no intention whatsoever of stopping illegal immigrants or deporting them.‘Instead they will be accommodated here.‘The Conservative plan is instead to leave the European Convention on Human Rights so all illegal immigrants can be deported on arrival.’Treasury documents said it would provide £150million in 2027-28 to ‘fund additional large sites to accommodate asylum seekers and facilitate the government’s commitment to end the use of asylum hotels’.The money would be spent on setting up new bases and not on running costs.No details have yet been released on how many new centres will be set up, nor any possible locations.Current sites have been established on former Ministry of Defence bases.Last month residents of Piddington, Oxfordshire, voted – symbolically – to leave the UK in protest at plans for a new asylum centre near their homes, which will see the 350 villagers outnumbered four-to-one by 1,250 adult male asylum seekers. Protesters gather in Braintree, Essex, to demonstrate against asylum seeker accommodation at nearby Wethersfield in August 2025 Wethersfield cost £49million to set up and is set to expand from 800 to 1,245 beds. It was originally set to operate until April but is now likely to run until 2030Residents are also opposing other proposed new centres at Barnham in Norfolk and Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire.Wethersfield cost £49million to set up and is set to expand from 800 to 1,245 beds. It was originally set to operate until April but is now likely to run until 2030.There were just over 16,000 asylum seekers in hotels at the end of June, down from a peak of 56,000 in 2023. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch visited Piddington in Oxfordshire last month as residents voted overwhelmingly to become an 'independent state', in a symbolic protest at the Home Office's decision to build an asylum centre on their doorstepMeanwhile, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said the cost of supporting asylum seekers will continue to fall if the Home Office continues processing claims at the same rate.However, costs are passed on to local authorities after the Home Office grants someone asylum status.The OBR said this had contributed to homeless spending by councils – outside the Homelessness Reduction Act – rising from £2billion in 2010-11 to £4billion in 2025-26.