The UK Home Office is preparing to move asylum seekers out of hotels and into pop-up modular buildings as part of a new plan to tackle the ongoing migrant housing crisis. According to Housing Secretary Steve Reed, the government will announce detailed plans “within weeks” as it seeks to end the use of hotels entirely.
Reed said the new modular units—similar to those used to reduce prison overcrowding—can be built quickly and efficiently. Each unit would include en-suite bathrooms, a bed, and basic furniture. “You can use modular forms of building. That means it can go up much faster than would normally be the case,” Reed said. “We could use big sites and get people on there and end the use of hotels entirely.”
The comments follow a harsh report from MPs criticizing the Home Office for wasting billions of pounds on hotel contracts due to poor management and oversight. The report found that some companies made excess profits and that the department failed to recover millions of pounds owed.
Building firm Portakabin has reportedly shown interest in supplying emergency prefabricated units for asylum accommodation. The Home Office is also exploring the use of former military bases, industrial sites, and unused educational buildings, such as teacher training colleges and student housing, to provide short-term homes for asylum seekers.
Currently, the Home Office houses more than 100,000 people, including over 32,000 asylum seekers in hotels. Although this number has fallen since its peak, it remains higher than last year. Officials aim to stop using hotels entirely by 2029, replacing them with a combination of medium-sized and modular accommodation sites housing between 200 and 700 people.
However, some MPs have cautioned against relying on large sites, saying they could be even more expensive than hotels. In one example, the department spent £15.4 million purchasing the former Northeye prison for asylum housing, only to later declare the site unfit for use. The costly mistake raised further concerns about the Home Office’s planning process and accountability.
So, will pop-up modular buildings solve the UK’s asylum accommodation crisis? Supporters say they offer a faster, cheaper, and more flexible solution. Critics, however, warn that rushing construction and ignoring community concerns could create new challenges.
The Home Affairs Committee has also warned that the Home Office still lacks “a clear and achievable plan” to deliver enough medium-sized sites to meet demand. For now, the only major site being used is the former RAF base at Wethersfield.
As the government races to finalize its new accommodation plans, questions remain over whether this strategy will finally bring an end to the UK’s costly and controversial reliance on migrant hotels.