Overview

• Somani Hotels Limited’s challenge to the High Court order is listed for Thursday, with the Home Office also seeking permission to appeal and to contest its earlier refusal to be allowed into the case.
• The injunction, granted by Mr Justice Eyre on 19 August on planning-law grounds, requires the Bell Hotel to stop asylum placements and be emptied by 12 September, and it remains in force.
• Roughly 140 residents must be rehoused by the deadline, as the Home Office argues hotel closures should be coordinated nationally to avoid disorder and reiterates a pledge to end hotel use by the end of this Parliament.
• The Bell Hotel has drawn repeated protests and counter-protests following charges against a resident, with police deployments and local political pressure intensifying.
• Councils across party lines are examining copycat legal action, and the Home Office has confirmed it will not continue using the Park Hotel in Diss beyond its current contract following a threatened planning-law challenge.