Thames Water warns of sewage risks at planned expansion of Oxfordshire detention centre
Thames Water has warned that a planned expansion of Campsfield House, an immigration removal centre near Kidlington in Oxfordshire, could lead to sewage flooding. The water company made the warning in a written submission on the Home Office's plans for the site, according to The Guardian.
An immigration removal centre is a facility where people awaiting removal from the UK can be held. According to the same submission, the proposed secure accommodation blocks would be 20 metres from a sewage pumping station. A Thames Water senior development manager warned that this closeness could bring odour, noise, vibration, lighting linked to maintenance work, and insects and flies for the people living there.
The company's concerns go beyond the site itself. In an October submission, Thames Water raised questions about capacity in the foul water (sewage), surface water and water supply networks serving the Campsfield area. It asked for an impact study to establish whether the development would overload existing infrastructure.
Campsfield House reopened in December 2025, after being shut in 2018. The Home Office plans to raise its capacity from 160 bed spaces to 400. The expansion is part of a wider government aim to grow the immigration detention estate, the network of centres where people are held, by 40%.
The Home Office has also said that nearly 80,000 people were returned or deported from the UK between the 2024 election and the end of June 2026, an increase of 52% on the previous two years.
Oxfordshire County Council has formally objected to the expansion and has called for the site to be shut permanently. Written representations on the expansion will be heard at a public inquiry, which begins on 14 December.
