The Home Office said on 26 June 2026 it would open three new sites at surplus military bases — in Oxfordshire, Suffolk, and Yorkshire — to house roughly 3,750 asylum seekers, according to BBC News. This is part of a scheme that started in spring 2023, when the government first decided to use empty military buildings instead of paying for hotel rooms. Hotels were costing £6 million a day.

The original plan included RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and Wethersfield in Essex. The Home Office announced these two sites in March 2023 for people who had arrived in small boats. Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex were added later. Government documents from October 2025 say both are still in use.

The three new sites would add around 1,250 places each — roughly the same size as the existing military bases. Spreading them across Oxfordshire, Suffolk, and Yorkshire means the teams running asylum support will need to work across different English regions. These teams handle housing, healthcare, legal advice, and case management.

Why the Government Chose This Approach

In 2023, ministers said military sites were meant to be a temporary fix. They were cheaper than hotels, faster to set up than building new housing, and easier to manage. The £6 million daily hotel bill was the main reason officials gave for the switch. Nobody has published an independent check of whether military sites actually cost less per person than hotels did.

What has happened over the past three years is the opposite of what was planned. The idea was that military sites would be used only while the government sped up decisions on asylum claims and built more permanent housing. Instead, the scheme keeps expanding.

One thing worth flagging: all of these sites are in England. Cameron Barracks is in Scotland, where the Scottish Government says it wants a different approach to asylum housing — though it doesn't have the power to stop these decisions, since asylum is controlled by Westminster. If the government uses military sites in Wales or Northern Ireland in future, those countries' governments may object more strongly.

What Happens Next

It usually takes months to get a military site ready for people to live in. The buildings need checking, repairs, and contractors need to move in. When Scampton opened in 2023, local people complained and there were legal challenges, which slowed things down. The same could happen with the three new sites.

The broader picture is this: what started as an emergency measure in 2023 is now becoming a permanent part of how the UK houses asylum seekers. The government is not winding down the military sites scheme — it is keeping it going.