Bucks Council is seeking correspondence from the Home Office addressing intelligence suggesting that a hotel in Buckingham will be used to house asylum seekers, according to Bucks Herald.
In Wednesday’s (21 September) full Bucks Council meeting, leader Martin Tett announced a hotel in Buckingham was being earmarked for use in a Government scheme.
It is ran by a well-known hotel chain, which operates throughout the UK.
The chain confirmed it owns the hotel in question and it was currently closed to bookings.
When contacted by The Bucks Herald, the Home Office denied Councillor Tett’s version of events.
A Government spokesperson said: “The Home Office does not comment on operational arrangements for individual hotels.
When temporary accommodation is used to give people moving to the UK somewhere to eat and sleep, it is often organised by the companies themselves in collaboration with local authorities, the Home Office states.
“We have urged the Home Office to have a dialogue with us so that we can continue to support the overall asylum programme in a way that balances the cumulative impact on local services – but have not yet had a response to our correspondence – we now have no option but to consider legal and regulatory enforcement action to prevent an extra burden being placed on already stretched local services such as health, transport and education.”
The hotel chain whose property would be used for the immigration project, has given up running another property in Bucks.
When approached by The Bucks Herald, the company said it did not know who was now in control of its former property.
This is due to all hotels in its group being independently owned with operational decisions also being made at a local level.
