PM says he will work to ensure ‘poorest communities’ do not have lion’s share of migrant accommodation
Daily Telegraph 11/08/26
Andy Burnham has said middle-class families should “play their part” by accepting asylum seeker accommodation near their homes.
The Prime Minister said he would work to ensure that the “poorest communities” did not have to take the lion’s share of accommodation for asylum seekers.
Mr Burnham has campaigned against housing asylum seekers in houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and hotels in working-class areas, including his Makerfield constituency.
He refused to commit to stopping small boat Channel crossings by the next election.
Mr Burnham told GB News: “I do have to say that we cannot have a situation where it’s only the poorest communities in the country that receive all of the dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers.
“I do believe all parts of the country need to work... to play their part. It’s a challenging issue. We’re working at it. We understand people’s concerns.”
Asked if he would commit to stopping small boat crossings by the next election, he said: “It would be wrong, I think, for me to make a prediction now based on a timeline.
“I would rather promise to people what I know I can do and what I know I can deliver, and that is a relentless focus on this issue to deal with the public concern.
“I heard it on doorstep after doorstep in Makerfield, and I said to the people there – and I say it to the country – I hear what you say. I will be completely focused on the issue.
“There are more measures that we’re bringing through – but crossings are down. Immigration is down. There is real progress to report.”
He promised to “change our tactics” to tackle the gangs bringing migrants across the Channel, after a record 230 people made the journey on a single boat on Monday.
“I know people will have been worried to see that image yesterday,” he said. “It shows that the gangs are changing their tactics, but so will we – we will now change our tactics, and we will be relentless in chasing them down.”
After winning the Makerfield by-election in June, Mr Burnham promised to end “HMO Britain” and said he would change Britain’s asylum accommodation system.
The Government has said it is closing down asylum hotels, and since the election the number of migrants living in privately rented houses and flats has increased by more than 7,000 to 68,538.
Last week, 15 people were arrested in Thetford, Norfolk, after anti-immigration protesters targeted homes they believed had been used to house asylum seekers.
The demonstrations took place after reports that the Government was planning to convert nearby RAF Barnham, a former military base in Suffolk, into asylum seeker accommodation.
The highest concentration of HMOs in the UK is in London, which accounts for around a third of the total, although contractors responsible for setting up dispersal housing usually choose lower-income areas where rent is cheaper.
A property is classed as an HMO if it houses three or more unrelated people, and the label can also apply to houses in the private rented sector.
They have become a popular choice for asylum contractors because they are cheaper to rent than hotels, although some councils have imposed stricter planning requirements on HMO rentals in recent years.
Data show that between 2021 and 2025, the number of HMOs in the borough of Wigan rose by 160 per cent, and around 160 of the 900 houses are used as accommodation for single male asylum seekers.
Mr Burnham is reportedly considering ending the outsourcing of asylum seeker housing, and hopes to end the use of hotels.
In recent months, asylum hotels have often become a rallying point for anti-migration protests, including in the middle-class Essex market town of Epping, where demonstrators forced the cancellation of a Home Office contract for the Bell Hotel in June.
The Prime Minister’s intervention comes after the arrival of a migrant boat carrying 230 people to the UK from France on Monday – the largest number to make the journey in a single vessel.
It broke a previous record set in July, when 165 people made the crossing on a single vessel, and prompted warnings that criminal gangs on the Continent were using larger and more dangerous boats to transport migrants to Britain.
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