A sixth council has launched legal action to stop the Government using hotels to house migrants.
North Northamptonshire Council wants to prevent asylum seekers being accommodated at the Royal Hotel in Kettering.
Five other local authorities are also taking legal action: East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Ipswich Borough Council, Stoke City Council, Great Yarmouth Borough Council, and Fenland District Council.
The authority applied to the High Court for an emergency injunction and is considering its next steps after this was dismissed.
Almost 40,000 migrants have arrived in Britain in small boats so far this year – compared with a then record 28,500 in the whole of 2021.
It comes as Rishi Sunak told the Commons that he and Home Secretary Suella Braverman are working ‘day and night’ to end ‘the unacceptable rise in Channel crossings’.
Council leader Jason Smithers said: ‘We do not feel that the Royal Hotel in Kettering is the appropriate place to accommodate asylum seekers for a number of reasons.
‘We do not feel the proposals have been properly considered to ensure the best possible welfare can be provided to asylum seekers and the local communities in which they are housed. We are now considering our options in light of the injunction’s dismissal by the High Court.’
The council said the proposal for migrants to be housed at the hotel was brought to its attention on October 27.
It said it was provided with further details including a ‘mobilisation date, a day before the date of mobilisation’.
A spokesman said: ‘Emergency injunction applications are considered by the court without notice to the defendants and without the ability for them to make representations until a later date.
‘The court determined that they did not want to consider the application on this basis and that all parties should instead be given an opportunity to be heard at the outset.
‘The application was therefore dismissed on this basis; the merits of the application were not considered.
‘The council is considering whether it should make a further application for an injunction on notice and is awaiting the outcomes of other local authorities who have also taken legal action.
‘It is also continuing to try and seek further confirmation from the Home Office’s contractor on key information which will help the council to support the housing of asylum seekers in suitable accommodation in North Northamptonshire.’
Two of the other local authorities – East Riding of Yorkshire and Ipswich Borough – argued their case at a High Court hearing yesterday.
It was said on their behalf that there had been an ‘unauthorised material change of use’ under planning rules through the Home Office’s attempts to book accommodation in Hull and Ipswich for asylum seekers, and advocates asked for previously granted injunctions to be extended.
But lawyers representing one of the hotel companies told the court that the Government is currently paying for empty rooms at its property because of the legal action.
The judge said he hopes to give his decision on the councils’ applications later this week.
It comes as the Prime Minister gave Conservative former minister Maggie Throup an ‘absolute cast-iron commitment that we want to get to grips with this problem’ after she called for him to commit to an ‘immediate reduction in asylum seekers concentrated in one place’.
Ms Throup said: ‘Despite a productive meeting with the immigration minister yesterday, the Home Office continues to house over 400 asylum seekers in two neighbouring hotels in my constituency’, and asked for Mr Sunak to ‘intervene’ to permanently close accommodation centres there.
Read More: Now a SIXTH council takes legal action against the Government