Police forces will need more money to deal with pressures from large asylum sites in their areas, the Home Office has admitted.
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has pressed ahead with plans to house migrants at larger sites, such as military bases, despite warnings that they will cost the government more than controversial asylum hotels.
Several demonstrations have taken place this year opposing the government’s use of a military site in East Sussex to house asylum seekers. Crowborough military barracks, which was previously used to accommodate Afghan families evacuated under safe sanctuary schemes, is now due to house more than 500 asylum seekers.
The first 27 asylum seekers were moved in at the end of January this year. Asylum seekers will be housed there for three months while their claims are processed, and local councillors have said they have had assurances that the site will only be used for a year.
Now the Home Office guidance on funding help to deal with large sites has been updated to make sure all police forces are covered. Previously the policy had only applied to specific asylum sites, but the government is looking to expand the number of areas used for migrants.
Sussex Police have said they are in discussions with the Home Office about seeking additional funding to deal with the extra costs from housing migrants at Crowborough army base.
Protesters opposed to the housing of asylum seekers at the military site marched through Crowborough on Sunday after a High Court judge ruled that the government’s decision to use the base couldn’t be challenged in the courts.
Several demonstrations have taken place since the Home Office first proposed using the barracks, with thousands of people in attendance. While aggrieved local residents have made up the marches, some figures from the far-right have also taken the opportunity to ratchet up tensions. This has reportedly included activists from the Operation Raise the Colours movement, some of whom have been banned by French authorities due to harassment of migrants in northern France.
Migrant hotels have become flashpoints for violent protests the past two summers with Labour coming under significant political pressure to end their use by the end of this government. The number of migrants housed in hotels is down 19 per cent year-on-year to 30,657, but the numbers who were in contingency or dispersal accommodation – such as shared flats – is slightly up on 2024. 72,769 people were being housed in Home Office accommodation other than hotels as of 31 December 2025, up 2 per cent on 2024.
Epping Forest District Council went to court last summer over a protest-hit migrant hotel, which they said had become a “feeding ground for unrest”. They lost their bid for an injunction, but the council will seek to permission to appeal the decision at the Court of Appeal on Thursday.
A spokesperson for Sussex Police said: “We recognise the impact of this additional policing demand and are committed to keeping the public safe across the whole of Sussex. We are working with the Home Office to seek additional funding, and these discussions are ongoing.”
Essex Police Force have previously received £267,569 from the government to support their policing of Wethersfield asylum camp, and Dorset Police force received £746,888 to help with the Bibby Stockholm barge. Under the previous Conservative government, Lincolnshire police received £1.8m to allow extra officers to be recruited to deal with the use of RAF Scampton base for asylum seekers. The former airbase, famed for its role in the World War Two Dambusters raid, was never actually used to house migrants, with the plans scrapped last year.
The Home Office also plans to use Cameron Barracks in Inverness to house around 300 asylum seekers, but planning rules have delayed its use. Scottish politicians have said that, under Scottish law, the council would need to approve a change of use from a barracks to a hostel if it is used for longer than six months.
Wethersfield former military base in Essex is currently in use as a large asylum site, with The Independent revealing that self-harm and suicide attempts were among hundreds of incidents recorded at the camp in 2024. Freedom of information data revealed that in 2024 staff had to report 430 incidents to the Home Office.
Staff are required to notify the government when asylum seekers suffer serious injury, accident, or illness, if there is any violent or aggressive behaviour, or if staff safety is threatened.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are furious at the level of illegal migrants and asylum hotels.
“The government is removing the incentives drawing illegal migrants to Britain. That is why we will close every single asylum hotel, moving asylum seekers into basic accommodation like Crowborough."
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