Asylum seekers could be moved out of hotels and into modular new buildings “within weeks” as the government attempts to get to grips with the migration crisis.
The new plans outlined by Housing Secretary Steve Reed are part of efforts to see the costly use of hotels to house migrants “entirely”.
Such “pop-up” buildings have been used in the past to address prison overcrowding, constructed on prison grounds to provide en-suite accommodation, including a bed, desk, and television.
Speaking to the media, Mr Reed suggested the government could use “modular forms of building” to help phase out migrant hotels.
“That means it (buildings) can go up much faster than would normally be the case, and there are planning processes that we can use in these circumstances to make sure that the planning system itself isn’t delayed,” he explained.
The Housing Secretary said he was expecting “announcements to come on that within weeks,” and that “we just have to wait and see”.
As well as the new modular structures, Mr Reed also referenced new plans to house migrants at military barracks.
“We want to get it right, but the intention is to get those former military bases is one example of it, where we could use big sites and get people on there and end the use of hotels entirely. That’s where we want to get to,” he said.
The government is expected to roll out 'pop-up' accommodation to tackle the use of migrant hotels
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On Monday, the Home Office confirmed that two barracks in Scotland and southern England would now be used as temporary accommodation for around 900 men.
The plans will see migrants moved into Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex.
Previously, both sites had been used to house Afghans evacuated during the withdrawal from Kabul in 2021 before they were resettled elsewhere in the country.
Work of this nature ended earlier this year.
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Housing Secretary Steve Reed outlined the plans on Monday
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The Housing Secretary’s comments come as Sir Keir Starmer admitted he was “frustrated and angry” about the parlous state of the British asylum system.
Sir Keir blamed the current state on the “mess” his government had inherited from the Tories upon taking power last year.
He suggested it was the previous administration’s apparent mishandling of the asylum backlog for the current crisis.
“We had years under the previous government where they didn’t process claims, so tens of thousands of people didn’t have their claims processed,” Sir Keir said.
The migrant hotel scheme has been slammed by MPs as 'chaotic' and squandering taxpayer money
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The Home Office has pledged to stop the use of migrant hotels by 2029, with 32,059 migrants currently housed in the pricy accommodation as of June 2025.
While this is down from all-time highs, it is an increase on the numbers from 2024.
The government’s efforts come as MPs found that billions of pounds of taxpayer money has been "wasted" on the "chaotic" asylum hotel system.
They found that the expected cost of housing asylum seekers, using the current accommodation model, has more than tripled from £4.5billion to £15.3billion between 2019 and 2029.
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