COUNCILS are preparing to fight the Home Office over plans to move hotel migrants into “houses in multiple occupation”.
At least eight have passed, or are trying to pass, measures that make it harder for bedsits to be set up by landlords, The Sun has found.
The Home Office had secretly planned to house illegal immigrants in student flats in Leeds
Newsline MediaMigrants outside an asylum hotel in Aberdeen[/caption]
GettyMigrants cram into a small boat leaving France from Britain[/caption]
Wigan Council said new rules would allow them to scrutinise every application closely.
Around 200 HMOs in the town are used to house asylum seekers.
But the council said it currently has “no powers or say in the number or location” of properties used by the Home Office.
HMOs are routinely used by Home Office contractors to house asylum seekers and also by other agencies to house homeless people, ex-offenders or as student housing.
Currently, turning a house into an HMO for up to six people does not need to go through a planning process.
But several councils are considering Article 4 directions that would mean planning permission must be sought.
As well as Wigan, they include Derby City, Warrington Borough, North Lincolnshire, Bolton, Lambeth, Sefton and Eastbourne Borough.
Eastbourne and Bolton said the measures were unrelated to plans to house asylum seekers.
Meanwhile, Labour faces more opposition to its plans to look again at housing migrants in disused military bases.
Among them is RAF Scampton, in Lincolnshire, which West Lindsey District Council has called “wholly unsuitable”.
It comes after The Sun revealed Leeds City Council is considering turning a block of student flats into migrant accommodation.
Housing migrants in hotels is costing taxpayers £5.5million a day.
The Home Office said: “As we seek to close all asylum hotels by the end of this parliament, we are working closely with local authorities.”
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