A council has temporarily paused plans to buy new housing for asylum seekers following a decision by the Home Office.
Councillor Michael Mordey, leader of Sunderland City Council, confirmed there will be a pause on buying the properties.
The Home Office said Sunderland had met its targets, so allocation of asylum seekers to dispersed accommodation had been put on hold.
Dispersal accommodation is a form of longer-term, temporary housing which is managed by accommodation providers on behalf of the Home Office.
Asylum seekers are able to stay in these properties until their asylum claim has been fully determined.
Labour leader Councillor Mordey said it was right that "other places take their responsibility to support vulnerable people just as seriously as we do", reports the BBC.
Home Office figures show there were 830 asylum seekers in dispersed accommodation in Sunderland as of the end of March.
There were 30 asylum seekers per 10,000 people living in the city, based on population data recorded in 2022.
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Buying houses for asylum seekers has paused in Sunderland
It comes after the Home Office paused property procurement in Durham in June, halting the purchase of homes for asylum seekers in the area because it had reached "sufficient capacity".
County Durham's asylum seeker numbers increased dramatically following a Home Office policy change aimed at distributing arrivals more evenly across the country.
Between 2020 and 2023, the area accommodated just five asylum seekers.
However, this figure surged nearly 100-fold to 448 in the two years ending March, according to Government figures.
PA | Police at a protest outside a suspected asylum hotel in Epping over the weekend
Reform UK Councillor Darren Grimes said last month: "If you consider County Durham, our council tax base is low and we have some of the lowest council tax banding in the country and we are viewed by Westminster as appropriate for people who have absolutely no intention to work or contribute to the country, who don't share our views, values and culture, and we have to take them."
The housing of asylum seekers in Britain has previously led to protests, including most recently outside a suspected asylum hotel in Essex.
Six people were arrested following the demonstration, which saw bottles and smoke flares hurled towards police vehicles near the hotel in Epping over the weekend.
Some set off flares in blue and red, while others held signs which read "deport foreign criminals", "we go home when they go back" and "defend our girls".