UK Asylum Large Sites: Barracks, Barges and Surplus Land
When ministers announce that they are “closing hotels,” people are not being sent home. They are moved into “large sites.” In UK Home Office language that means ex-military barracks, accommodation barges, and buildings on surplus government-owned land. This page is a running record of every one of those sites: where they are, what they cost, and which ones the public paid for but never actually opened.
Programme at a glance
What counts as a “large site”?
The UK government uses the phrase “large sites” to describe non-hotel asylum accommodation holding hundreds of people at a single location on government-controlled land. In practice this has meant three types of property: former Ministry of Defence bases (Wethersfield, Scampton, Napier, Crowborough, Cameron Barracks, Linton-on-Ouse), accommodation vessels (the Bibby Stockholm barge at Portland), and a handful of other acquisitions on surplus public or previously-institutional land such as Northeye, a former prison at Bexhill-on-Sea[3].
The stated rationale is cost: the government has said repeatedly that hotels are expensive and that shifting people to large sites will save taxpayers money. The National Audit Office has contested that framing. It concluded in March 2024 that the Home Office's large-sites programme is expected to cost more than hotel accommodation and to deliver fewer places than originally planned[2]. The April 2026 GOV.UK announcement about closing eleven hotels described the policy as “scaling up use of large sites”[1].
Currently operational sites
RAF Wethersfield (Essex)
OperationalA former Royal Air Force base near Braintree, operating as asylum accommodation since July 2023. Residents are adult males with a maximum stay of nine months[3]. The National Audit Office projected a total cost to the taxpayer of around £338 million if the site remained open through to 2027. That is part of a four site bundle on which roughly £230 million had already been spent by March 2024[2].
Crowborough Training Camp (East Sussex)
OperationalA former army training camp at Pippingford Park, opened to asylum seekers on 22 January 2026 and scaling to between 500 and 600 residents[4]. ITV Meridian reported the first arrivals amid protests and a failed legal challenge[6]. The site takes unaccompanied adult men aged 18 to 65 only (no women, children or families).
Cameron Barracks (Inverness)
Opening 2026Military barracks in Inverness being prepared as temporary accommodation for up to roughly 300 adult male asylum seekers[5]. STV reported that roughly £1.3 million in refurbishment contracts had been disclosed, with a larger redecoration package not due to complete until April 2026[10].
Closed or decommissioned sites
Napier Barracks (Folkestone, Kent)
ClosedOne of the earliest Home Office ex-military sites, Napier Barracks operated with a 90-day maximum stay before its closure as an asylum accommodation site[3].
Bibby Stockholm (Portland, Dorset)
DecommissionedThe Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge served as asylum accommodation for roughly 18 months before the government moved residents off in late 2024. Its time in service included legionella contamination in the water supply and the death by suicide of a man living onboard[9].
Procured but never used: stranded capital
Three large-site projects absorbed public money but never actually housed anyone. Either because the site turned out to be unusable, or because a change of policy scrapped them before opening.
RAF Scampton (Lincolnshire)
Cancelled before openingThe former Dambusters base was earmarked for asylum accommodation under the previous government but scrapped in September 2024. The NAO documented that costs spiralled to around £27 million against a £5 million forecast, before the site was cancelled without ever opening[2].
Northeye (Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex)
Abandoned as unsuitableA former HM Prison site bought by the Home Office in September 2023 for around £15.4 million. That was more than double the £6.3 million paid by the previous owner just a year earlier. A technical due-diligence report before purchase flagged repair costs potentially exceeding £20 million; the site was subsequently declared unsuitable for asylum use[7]. Press coverage described the acquisition as a £15 million write-off for the public purse[8].
RAF Linton-on-Ouse (North Yorkshire)
CancelledThe Home Office spent roughly £2.9 million in 2022-23 preparing the former RAF base before the proposal was cancelled following opposition from the local authority and residents[3].
How this feeds the site-wide total
The live spending counter on the homepage now incorporates the Large Sites Programme as a separate category rather than rolling it into a generic “temporary housing” bucket. The current breakdown, derived from NAO-published figures and the per-person per-night accommodation benchmark[11], is:
Large Sites Programme: annual contribution to the counter
The stranded-capital line amortises three one-off losses (Scampton ~£27m, Northeye ~£15m, Linton ~£3m) over three years for illustrative purposes; the underlying lump sum is roughly £45 million that has already been spent. Operational figures reflect bed count × published £170/person/night accommodation benchmark and are conservative relative to NAO whole-life cost projections.
Sources
- Asylum hotels close as government scales up use of large sites — GOV.UK (Home Office), Apr 2026
Official government announcement of 11 asylum hotel closures, listing the Citrus Hotel in Cheltenham by name and estimating annual savings of nearly £65 million.
- Alternative asylum accommodation will cost more than hotels — National Audit Office, Mar 2024
NAO finding that the Home Office expects to spend £1.2 billion on its large-sites programme and had already spent at least £230 million by March 2024 developing four large sites (Bibby Stockholm, RAF Scampton, RAF Wethersfield and former student accommodation in Huddersfield); concludes large-scale sites will cost more than hotels and deliver fewer places than planned.
- Asylum accommodation: hotels, vessels and large-scale sites — House of Commons Library, 2025
Parliamentary research briefing surveying the UK asylum accommodation estate including hotels, accommodation vessels such as the Bibby Stockholm, and large-scale sites on surplus government or ex-military land.
- Crowborough Training Camp, East Sussex: factsheet — GOV.UK (Home Office), 2026
Official factsheet on the use of Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex as temporary asylum accommodation for single adult male asylum seekers aged 18–65, with arrivals from 22 January 2026.
- Cameron Barracks, Inverness: factsheet — GOV.UK (Home Office), 2026
Official factsheet on the plan to use Cameron Barracks in Inverness as temporary accommodation for up to about 300 single adult male asylum seekers aged 18–65.
- First asylum seekers moved into Crowborough Army Camp amid pressure to end hotel use — ITV News Meridian, Jan 2026
ITV report confirming the arrival of the first asylum seekers at Crowborough Army Camp in East Sussex in January 2026 and placing the opening in the context of the wider policy of moving asylum seekers out of hotels.
- Investigation into the acquisition of the Northeye site for asylum accommodation — National Audit Office, Nov 2024
NAO investigation confirming the Home Office completed the purchase of the former HMP Northeye site at Bexhill-on-Sea in September 2023 for around £15.4 million, more than double what the previous owner had paid a year earlier, before concluding the site was unsuitable for asylum accommodation.
- Home Office ‘wasted’ £15m of taxpayers’ cash on asbestos-filled migrant camp — Express & Star, Nov 2024
Reports that £15 million of public money was spent acquiring the Northeye site near Bexhill for asylum accommodation before it was abandoned as unsuitable.
- Hundreds of asylum seekers moved off Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge — STV News, 2024
Reports the end of the Bibby Stockholm barge as asylum accommodation after roughly 18 months, including incidents of legionella contamination in the water supply and a death by suicide on board.
- Asylum seekers’ move to Inverness barracks faces delay over £1.3m refurbishment — STV News, 2025
Reports £300,000 plus ~£1 million in refurbishment contracts at Cameron Barracks, with the larger redecoration contract not due to complete until April 2026.
- Asylum accommodation in the UK — Migration Observatory, University of Oxford, Aug 2025
£170 per person per day in hotels (2024/25 average); used for per-hotel estimates and food/utilities breakdowns.