Dear All,
You may have already seen this but just in case I thought I would send it on.
Nigel
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14 November 2022
Asylum Accommodation in Torbay
As a place, Torbay has always done it’s best to welcome those who are in need of help and support. This has been seen through our support of the Home Office’s Vulnerable Person’s Resettlement Scheme, which was for those families fleeing Syria and Afghanistan, and more recently those needing support who have fled to the Bay from Ukraine.
At the start of September 2022, the Home Office set up contingency accommodation for asylum seekers at a hotel in Paignton. As soon as they arrived, we set up a multi-agency group and worked with our health colleagues, the police and the Torbay Community Development Trust to ensure that those who arrived in the Bay have the support that they need.
We knew from other South West local authorities that any asylum hotel set up within Torbay was likely to result in a number of the residents presenting as unaccompanied asylum seeking young people. In the case of the hotel in Paignton, 21 individuals presented as minors despite having been assessed as adults by the Chief Immigration Officer.
As such we have been required to undertake Merton Compliant Age Assessments which take up to 28 days to complete. For each assessment it takes two social workers a minimum of 37 hours. Each assessment must also include an interpreter, an appropriate adult and an advocate. This is having a significant impact on our Children’s Services directorate in terms of placement sufficiency, budgetary position, capacity in the workforce and service needs.
At the start of last week, we were made aware that a group of asylum seekers were accommodated in a hotel in Torquay with notification being received the following day that the Home Office was considering the use of that hotel. We understand that this is part of the Home Office’s emergency response measures.
Cllr Cordelia Law, our Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, had previously written to the Home Secretary about the pressures that the original hotel was placing on our services. There is the potential for this situation to destabilise our Children’s Services department from delivering good and required services for children and families in Torbay.
Given the stepping up of the second hotel, we asked, via our solicitors, urgent questions of the Home Office and stood ready to issue urgent proceedings upon a response from them. These are exceptional circumstances, and we would not normally seek to take this type of action. However, we felt we had little choice given the profound pressures on our services.
At the end of last week, we were told of plans for a third hotel to be opened (a second in Torquay). This information was not received from the Home Office or from their contractors Clearsprings Ready Homes. As a result, a second pre-proceedings letter was issued to the Home Office via our solicitors. This letter included a request that the third hotel was not brought into operation until the Home Office had responded to the letter and we had had the opportunity to consider that response. The deadline for response to that letter is midday on Wednesday 16 November.
We received confirmation from Clearsprings Ready Homes this morning (15 November) that due diligence on the third hotel has been completed and, whilst the Home Office had not yet commercially approved its use, the proposed date on which it would go live was tomorrow (Wednesday 16 November). We have since had notification that the use of the hotel is being paused whilst a decision of the Home Office is awaited.
Our legal team received a response from the Home Office to our first pre-proceedings letter and discussions were held yesterday on the potential next steps. This included consideration of a landmark judgement which was issued by the High Court on Friday 11 November on an interim injunction sought by Ipswich Borough Council and East Riding of Yorkshire Council.
As a result of those discussions and the intelligence we had of the potential third hotel, the following was agreed: list of 2 items
▪ Torbay Council will not apply for an interim injunction against the use of hotels to accommodate asylum seekers
▪ We will issue instructions to seek a Judicial Review of the actions of the Home Office (on an expedited basis) on three grounds:
▪ We had a legitimate expectation from the Home Office that no further hotels would be used in the Torbay area
▪ The Home Office failed to consider the planning position, in particular the location of the hotel(s) within a Core Tourism Investment Area
▪ The Home Office failed to consider the potential for service failure (especially children’s services) within the Council
We are continuing to work with Clearsprings Ready Homes and their managers within the two hotels in operation to ensure that appropriate support is in place for the residents of the hotels. We are also continuing to make all efforts to liaise with the Home Office about the impact on our services of accommodating asylum seekers in Torbay.
As the circumstances continue to change, we will keep you updated. Further information is also available on our website at:
www.torbay.gov.uk/asylum-seekers-contingency-accommodation
Kate Spencer
Head of Policy, Performance and Community Engagement
Paignton Probus Club 