Overview

• A judge granted Epping Town Council an interim order requiring operator Somani Hotels Limited to vacate the Bell Hotel, which currently hosts up to 138 male asylum seekers, by 12 September.
• The court action rests on alleged breaches of planning and licensing rules, including the absence of a formal change-of-use application for the hotel’s conversion to asylum accommodation.
• The injunction is provisional and could be revisited as the case proceeds, but campaigners and local authorities opposing hotel use see the decision as a significant win.
• The move follows weeks of unrest after an asylum seeker was charged over an alleged sexual assault on a 14-year-old; the defendant denies the allegation, several men face violent public-order charges, and a first hearing was held on Monday.
• The Home Office has cautioned about broad consequences for national asylum housing, with nearby Broxbourne signaling similar action and political pressure intensifying on Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has pledged to phase out hotel use.