COUNCILS in Scotland are unlikely to block hotels housing asylum seekers in the same way as seen in Essex, a legal expert has said.
On Tuesday, the High Court granted a temporary injunction to Epping Forest District Council, blocking refugees from being allowed to stay at a former hotel.
The ruling blocks asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell Hotel in the Essex town, and current residents must be removed by September 12.
While the court ruling that asylum seekers be removed from the hotel was won by the council against the hotel over the breach of planning rules, Reform UK and far-right protesters are taking the injunction as a "victory" for them.
Nigel Farage has stated that the Epping community "stood up bravely, despite being slandered as far-right, and have won". He has further called for peaceful protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers "across Britain" to put pressure on local authorities.
Questions are being asked on what the implications of the ruling are for Scotland, and whether Scottish councils could take similar action.
Nick McKerrell, senior lecturer in law at Glasgow Caledonian University, told The National that his view was that Scotland is unlikely to see councils block hotels housing asylum seekers, despite the potentially landmark ruling in Essex.
What happened in the Epping ruling?
The ruling from Justice Eyre is significant but framed in "quite a specific way in the framework of English planning law", McKerrell explained.
"Essentially the argument of Epping Council is that the hotel, by housing asylum seekers, is no longer acting as a hotel therefore it is in breach of the planning permission that was granted to allow it to operate in such a way.
“In legal terms, the council are arguing there is a change of use but not only that there has been a 'material' change of use – which means the change is so significant that it requires a new planning permission application if it wants to house asylum seekers."
McKerrell added that a significant point was that the court did not make a ruling on whether they agreed with the council’s position.
The interim injunction (a court order banning behaviour – an interdict in Scots Law) is about the use of the hotel until a resolutions at a later hearing.
"So he is saying that he will not make a ruling on whether the hotel is breaching planning law but it is saying that because of the broader issues raised it should not operate as a location for asylum seekers in the interim."
Ultimately in his ruling on Tuesday, the judge conceded that "housing destitute asylum seekers is an important public policy," McKerrell summarised, "but there is also a public interest in ensuring that planning control is followed within local authorities which are ultimately responsible for it."
Could Scotland challenge hotels housing asylum seekers?
The judge in the Epping Forest case was keen to emphasise that his decision was very “fact sensitive” so could not be seen as a precedent, McKerrell stressed.
"He actually outlined a number of different contradictory decisions in the English courts on whether using hotels to house asylum seekers is a 'material' difference from operating 'usually' as a hotel. Scotland also has its own planning laws.
“Here it would require a local authority to challenge a hotel for breaching planning law. Scots planning law uses similar terms to those argued in the English court over change of 'material use'. Generally though that would be difficult in this context given councils in Scotland generally have been involved in discussions with the Home Office and contractors to agree to bring asylum seekers into the local area."
He added: "A group that was angered by asylum seekers being housed for example as seen in Falkirk at the weekend would not be able to raise such an action."
“In England the numbers of asylum seekers are much greater and enter into direct contracts with the hotels which may not involve the council as can be seen in Epping where the District Council brought the action”.
How many asylum seekers in the UK in 2025?
The most recent Home Office data showed there were 32,345 asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels at the end of March.
This was down 15% from the end of December, when the total was 38,079.
New figures – published among the usual quarterly immigration data release – are expected on Thursday, showing numbers in hotels at the end of June.
Figures for hotels published by the Home Office date back to December 2022 and showed numbers hit a peak at the end of September 2023 when there were 56,042 asylum seekers in hotels.
How many hotels are in use for asylum seekers?
It is thought there were more than 400 asylum hotels open in summer 2023.
Labour said this has since been reduced to fewer than 210.
