City MP Stephen Morgan has announced that the Royal Beach Hotel in Southsea will cease providing asylum accommodation in the coming weeks, following a decision by the Government to end the Home Office’s contract with the venue.
The Portsmouth South MP has been liaising with Ministers, writing repeatedly to the Home Office with the concerns of constituents and recently met with the Minister for Border Security again to express views from constituents, community groups and local businesses.
The Home Office has now provided Mr Morgan with confirmation that the Southsea hotel will cease to provide asylum accommodation by the end of December 2026, as part of ongoing efforts by the Government to ensure more appropriate accommodation for asylum seekers, and a fair, controlled immigration system.
Alongside having heard the concerns about the current state of the venue in recent years, Mr Morgan has been liaising with nearest neighbours of the hotel and is working with others to improve the area. The hotel is looking tired, with scaffolding up for a considerable amount of time, the development stalled and neighbourhood neglected.
This latest decision reflects the Government’s priority to cease the usage of hotels as asylum accommodation and return usage of these venues over to local communities – a move welcomed by Mr Morgan.
Labour has already taken major steps to reverse the reliance on hotels established by the previous government, with less than 170 hotels currently remaining in use down from the height of 400 under the Conservatives.
The shift away from the usage of hotels as asylum accommodation is one of the many measures being taken by Ministers with their commitment to restore order and control to Britain’s immigration system. The number of asylum seekers in temporary accommodation via hotels has halved in the past year alone.
Since the General Election in 2024, over 48,000 attempted small boat crossings have been stopped. In the year to March 2026, 1,900 immigration criminals were arrested, up 74% on the previous year. Small boat arrivals are down significantly on last year, with this summer recording the lowest number of arrivals since 2021.
Returns have reached a 10 year high, with over 80,000 people with no right to remain in the UK removed since July 2024, an increase of 52% compared with the previous 2 years.
Commenting, Stephen Morgan, MP for Portsmouth South, said:
“Ministers have heard loud and clear concerns from Portsmouth people as I have repeatedly raised in Parliament and with my liaising with the Home Office. I appreciate the swift action the Minister for Border Security has taken following my most recent meeting with her.
“Labour inherited an asylum system under exceptional and unsustainable strain, with tens of thousands of cases stuck in the backlog and deep-rooted structural pressures across the system. An over-reliance on the inappropriate usage of hotels as asylum accommodation is an example of this.
“The Home Office has now confirmed directly to me that the Royal Beach Hotel will cease to provide accommodation in the coming weeks as part of the Government’s ongoing efforts to return usage of these venues over to local communities.
“The Minister has reassured me the Government will continue this transition to more appropriate and more sustainable forms of accommodation. This will deliver better value for taxpayers whilst restoring control and confidence for local communities like ours – a decision which will be welcomed in Portsmouth.
“By getting a grip of a system which spiralled out of control under the Tories, the Government will be able to provide protection to those in need, while bearing down on abuse of the system so that the British people do not lose faith in the idea of an asylum system.”
A Home Office spokesperson added:
“The Government inherited an asylum system under exceptional and unsustainable strain, with tens of thousands of cases stuck in the backlog and deep-rooted structural pressures across the system.
“Since taking office, we have restarted asylum processing at pace, established the new Border Security Command, and begun the most significant reforms to our asylum system in a generation. But we are clear: these longstanding problems cannot be fixed overnight.
“The Government has made it a priority to end the use of asylum hotels entirely within this Parliament.
“Following a review of our current asylum accommodation estate capacity, the Home Office will be terminating the contract with Royal Beach Hotel and can confirm that it will cease being used before the end of December 2026”.
