Overview

• Court of Appeal listings show Somani Hotels’ bid to overturn the injunction will be heard on Thursday, with the Home Office also seeking to appeal and to challenge its earlier exclusion from the case.
• The High Court order requires the Bell Hotel to cease housing asylum seekers by September 12, leaving around 140 residents to be moved on a tight timetable.
• Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says hotels should close through a national, orderly process rather than piecemeal court decisions, citing the rationale for the department’s appeal.
• Reports indicate more than 80 councils are exploring similar planning challenges, while West Oxfordshire District Council ruled out immediate enforcement against its local site and condemned misinformation.
• Ministers are in talks to shift roughly £5bn of asylum accommodation from private contractors to council-led schemes, with about 200 pilot expressions of interest and consideration of a 2026 break clause, and the Home Office says it will not use the Park Hotel in Diss beyond the current contract.