Protests outside migrant hotels are being “driven by a range of grievances, including animosity towards asylum seekers", the Home Office has argued as it seeks to overturn an injunction that would see immigrants moved out of a hotel in Essex.
The Government and Somani Hotels, which owns the Bell Hotel in Epping, are seeking to challenge a High Court ruling issued last week that will stop more than 100 people from being housed there beyond September 12.
Epping Forest District Council applied for the interim injunction following multiple protests outside the accommodation in recent weeks after a man living there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, an accusation he denies.
The local authority claimed that planning rules were being breached by the Bell Hotel being used as accommodation for asylum seekers. Other councils have since publicly announced their intention to seek legal advice on whether they could launch similar court fights over hotels in their areas.
The injunction creates a "risk of a precedent being set", the Court of Appeal was told on Thursday.
Piers Riley-Smith, for Somani Hotels, said that there were 138 asylum seekers currently housed at the Bell Hotel, and that Mr Justice Eyre, who granted the injunction, had "overlooked" the "hardship" that would be caused to them.
He added that the "extremely high-profile nature of the issue" created a "risk of a precedent being set as a number of other local authorities are reported to be considering similar injunctions to address the use of hotels for asylum seekers".
The injunction is set to cause "the loss of accommodation for asylum seekers", which would impact the Home Office's ability to perform its legal duties and that there was "no evidence where exactly they would go" if it was not overturned, he argued.
The hotel has been used to house migrants since May 2020, which suggested there was no “immediate, urgent planning harm”.
Edward Brown KC, for the Home Office, said that protests outside the Bell Hotel were "not realistically" about planning, claiming that they were instead "driven by a range of grievances, and they include animosity towards asylum seekers".
He said: "In the real world, it is not realistic to think that the objective of the protests is compliance with the planning regime."
He continued that claims put forward by Epping Forest District Council related to fear within the community of asylum seekers staying in hotels "arises from a very small number of specific incidents, which are acknowledged to be serious".
Asylum seekers did not have a "greater propensity" to commit crime, he said, adding: "That was not a conclusion that can or should have been reached at all, and we say was not one that Epping was able to advance."
Robin Green, for Epping Forest District Council, told the court that the local authority had not previously taken enforcement action because the Bell Hotel had been "unproblematic".
He said: "A decision not to take enforcement action at one point in time does not mean it cannot take a different decision at a later point in time if circumstances change.
"On the evidence, circumstances had undoubtedly changed."
Three senior judges will rule on whether to overturn a temporary injunction at 2pm on Friday.
Granting the temporary injunction on August 19, Mr Justice Eyre said that the council had not "definitively established" that Somani Hotels had breached planning rules, but that the company had "sidestepped public scrutiny and explanation" by housing asylum seekers at the site without planning permission.
Following the ruling, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage hailed the decision as a "victory" and said he hoped it "provides inspiration to others across the country".
He also indicated that the 12 councils where Reform UK was the largest party would consider legal challenges.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch suggested that the migrants housed at the hotel "need to be moved out of the area immediately".
Shortly before handing down his judgment, the judge also dismissed the Home Office's bid to intervene in the case, finding it was "not necessary" for the department to be involved.
The Government is challenging both the ruling and the decision to prevent it from being involved in the case.
Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said on Friday that ministers are working to close hotels housing asylum seekers "as swiftly as possible" as part of an "orderly" programme that avoids creating problems for other areas.
In court on Thursday, Edward Brown KC said: "The judge erred in declining to allow the Secretary of State to participate in the proceedings, given her unique institutional competence and her statutory duty... Her rights were clearly affected, and she ought to have been heard in the application."
