More than 10,000 asylum seekers were housed in hotels in London in June - down 2,000 on the number in March, new figures show.
The number of asylum seekers in hotels dropped in 17 London boroughs between March and June, the Home Office has revealed.
There were 10,081 asylum seekers in the capital’s hotels in June, compared to 12,024 in March.
The newly published data revealed that overall the number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels has risen by 8% under Labour on the same point last year.
The latest Home Office data, published on Thursday as part of the usual quarterly immigration statistics, cover Labour’s first year in office.
They show there were 32,059 asylum seekers in UK hotels by the end of June.
This was up from 29,585 at the same point a year earlier, when the Conservatives were still in power but down slightly on the 32,345 figure at the end of March.
Data is not released on the number of hotels in use, but it is thought there were more than 400 asylum hotels open in summer 2023, which Labour said it had now reduced to fewer than 210 across the country.
Hundreds were moved out of hotels in boroughs such as Barnet, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Tower Hamlets between March and June, with only Hammersmith and Fulham and Islington seeing large increases.
There were 443 people who moved out of hotels in Hillingdon. however, the borough still houses nearly twice as many asylum seekers as Manchester.
There were 1,158 asylum seekers housed in Manchester in June, compared to 2,238 in Hillingdon.
There were no asylum seekers housed in hotels in Tower Hamlets in June. However, asylum seekers are understood to have since been moved into the Britannia International in Canary Wharf.
Protests have broken out outside the hotel, and last Sunday, six arrests were made as protesters - some setting off pink flares and waving England flags - clashed with Metropolitan Police officers outside.
The Standard revealed on Thursday that a group of anti-migrant protesters dubbed the “Pink Ladies” plan to keep descending on the hotel until it is forced to shut down.
Dozens of women - said to be concerned local mothers, sisters and grandmothers - have insisted they are “not far-right, just on the right side of history”.
It comes as ministers scramble to devise contingency plans after Epping Forest District Council was granted a temporary High Court injunction blocking asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell Hotel, Essex.
The court ruled that more than 100 asylum seekers currently staying at the hotel should be removed from the accommodation.
Weeks of protests have broken out outside the Bell Hotel this summer since then-resident Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was accused of trying to kiss a 14-year-old girl.
The latest pressure on Labour over hotels comes as the Government is also grappling with record numbers of people crossing the Channel.
Thursday’s figures show migrants who arrived in the UK having made the dangerous crossing accounted for 39% of the total number of people claiming asylum in the year to June.
Nearly 28,000 people have arrived in the UK in 2025 so far after crossing the English Channel, a record for this point in the year since data collection began in 2018.
Meanwhile, other data published on Thursday showed Government spending on asylum in the UK is down 12%.
The total – which covers Home Office costs related to asylum, including direct cash support and accommodation such as hotels but not costs relating to intercepting migrants crossing the English Channel – stood at £4.76 billion in the year ending March 2025, down from from a record £5.38 billion the previous year.
Specific costs for hotels have not been published but a report from public spending watchdog the National Audit Office earlier this found that housing asylum seekers in hotels accounted for about 76% of the annual costs for asylum accommodation and support contracts, amounting to £1.3 billion of an estimated £1.7 billion in 2024/25.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation, known as contingency accommodation, if they are awaiting assessment of their claim or have had a claim approved and there is not enough longer-term accommodation available.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office – which has a legal obligation to provide accommodation to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute – can move people to alternatives such as hotels and large sites, like former military bases.
In May Hillingdon Council said it was considering legal action against the Home Office over the skyrocketing cost of supporting asylum seekers without additional Government funding.
Hillingdon, which has had to make £34 million of cuts this year, warned its finances are being stretched to “unsustainable levels” by the number of migrants being placed in the borough.
The vast majority of asylum seekers in the borough have been put up in hotels near Heathrow airport by the Home Office.
