The Home Office announced plans on 26 June 2026 to open three surplus military sites — in Oxfordshire, Suffolk, and Yorkshire — to house roughly 3,750 asylum seekers, according to BBC News. This expands a programme that started in spring 2023, when the government first looked to military buildings as a way to reduce reliance on hotels, which were costing £6 million per day.

The original two sites were RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and RAF Wethersfield in Essex, announced in March 2023 for housing people who had arrived by small boat. Two more sites came later: Cameron Barracks in Inverness, Scotland, and Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex. Government factsheets from October 2025 confirm both are still in use. Cameron Barracks is described as self-contained and providing basic, safe housing — a phrase that matters politically, because asylum policy is handled at Westminster (a reserved matter) but site operation involves Scottish public services.

The three new sites would add capacity at a larger scale than any previous expansion. Oxfordshire, Suffolk, and Yorkshire are in different English regions, which affects how housing, healthcare, legal advice, and casework support are arranged — these services flow through regional networks run by contracted providers. Each site would hold roughly 1,250 people on average, much like the existing sites rather than a dramatic jump in size.

Why This Happened

Ministers justified military sites in 2023 as a temporary fix: cheaper than hotels, quicker to get running than building new housing or dispersal accommodation (housing arranged for asylum seekers across the country rather than concentrated in one place), and easier to manage. The £6 million daily hotel bill featured heavily in government announcements. No independent audit of whether military sites actually cost less per person has been published.

Over three years, the programme has grown rather than shrunk. The original idea was that military accommodation would bridge the gap while the asylum system processed claims faster and created more dispersal housing options. The announcement of three new sites in mid-2026 suggests neither of these pressure valves has worked as hoped.

The geography of devolution (powers split between Westminster and the nations) matters here. Four of the five existing or planned military sites are in England; one is in Scotland. The Scottish Government has a different public position on asylum accommodation, though it cannot formally block Home Office decisions on reserved matters. Any future expansion into Wales or Northern Ireland would sharpen tensions further.

What Happens Next

Converting a surplus military building into accommodation involves surveying the site, making repairs, and arranging for contractors to staff it — a process that typically takes time. RAF Scampton's opening in 2023 showed how local opposition, legal challenges, and practical difficulties can slow things down. Whether the three new sites face similar obstacles will depend on their condition and how receptive the local areas are.

For those who work in asylum policy, this week's announcement sends a clear signal: the government is not treating military sites as a temporary emergency measure. After three years, they have become an established part of how the UK houses asylum seekers — whether controversial or not.