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; Scampton, Cameron Barracks and Linton-on-Ouse never opened), 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 reported a projection of around £338 million for 2023-24 to 2026-27 if the site stayed open, of which £105.1 million is a one-off for acquisition, lease and set-up and £63.3 million a year is projected for each of 2025-26 and 2026-27[4]. 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[6]. ITV Meridian reported the first arrivals amid protests and a failed legal challenge[7]. The site takes unaccompanied adult men aged 18 to 65 only (no women, children or families). Home Office officials told MPs on 9 June 2026 that £7.1 million had been spent to that date, including £2 million of one-off mobilisation, and Clearsprings said there were 480 residents[8]. No annual or contract value is published.
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[10].
Planned or procured but never used
Four large-site projects never housed anyone. Scampton, Northeye and Linton-on-Ouse absorbed public money, and Cameron Barracks was scrapped in June 2026 before it opened. The figures below are one-off amounts, each described as its source describes it.
RAF Scampton (Lincolnshire)
Cancelled before openingThe former Dambusters base was earmarked for asylum accommodation under the previous government but scrapped in September 2024. The Home Affairs Committee reported that the Home Office lost £48.5 million that had been invested in the site, citing the Home Office accounts for 2024-25[9]. The NAO's March 2024 estimate of set-up costs there was £27 million, a different figure[4]. The site was cancelled without ever opening.
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[14]. The Express & Star described the purchase as £15 million of taxpayers' cash wasted[16], but ITV Meridian reported in February 2026 that the site had been formally transferred to Homes England, and no loss has been published[15].
RAF Linton-on-Ouse (North Yorkshire)
CancelledThe proposal was cancelled in 2022 following opposition from the local authority and residents[3]. The NAO reports that the Home Office declared £2.9 million of fruitless payments preparing the former RAF base[4]. A written ministerial statement of 29 June 2026 names it as one of three ex-military sites now under consideration[12].
Cameron Barracks (Inverness)
Cancelled before openingA Ministry of Defence barracks that the Home Office planned to use for up to about 300 men[13]. STV News reported on 25 June 2026 that the plan had been scrapped[11], and a written ministerial statement of 29 June 2026 said the site will be returned to the Ministry of Defence[12]. It never opened. STV said works worth £1.3 million had been approved, and that it is not known whether they were carried out.
How this feeds the site-wide total
The live spending counter on the homepage no longer has a Large Sites line. Since 2 October 2026 it has used the National Audit Office's estimate of Home Office and Ministry of Justice spending on asylum in 2024-25, about £4.9 billion, plus the UK's payments to France (the methodology page sets out the seven lines). That estimate covers all asylum accommodation, so RAF Wethersfield's cost for 2024-25 is inside its accommodation and support line, £3,406 million; the NAO does not itemise it. Crowborough opened in January 2026, after that year, so it is not in the counter, and sites that never opened have no cost in it.
Yearly figures for the two operating sites, for information: not separate lines in the counter
The Wethersfield figure is a projection made in January 2024, with no capacity basis stated, before the Home Office said in June 2026 that standard capacity would rise to 1,245; no yearly outturn has been published. The Crowborough figure is this site's estimate, not a published figure: officials have given no annual or contract value, and the total they gave includes health, police and Ministry of Defence costs and covers a period before the site was full.
One-off figures at sites that did not run: not in the counter
These are one-off amounts, not yearly costs, so none is in the counter. Each is shown as its source describes it: a reported loss, fruitless payments, money sunk, or a purchase price. The Scampton figure is the published loss; the NAO's £27 million for Scampton was an estimate of set-up costs, not a total.
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.
- Investigation into asylum accommodation (HC 635) · National Audit Office, 20 Mar 2024
NAO report HC 635 of 20 March 2024. Its Figure 6 (table values, projections from Home Office cost trackers of January 2024) puts Wethersfield at £338.7 million for 2023-24 to 2026-27: £105.1 million for site acquisition, lease and set-up, all of it in 2023-24; running costs of £176.0 million (£26.7 million in 2023-24, then £49.8 million in each of the next three years); and other costs of £57.6 million (£13.9 million in 2023-24, £16.7 million in 2024-25 and £13.5 million in each of 2025-26 and 2026-27). The yearly totals are £145.7 million, £66.5 million, then £63.3 million in each of 2025-26 and 2026-27. Note 4 says that for Scampton and Wethersfield the category also includes the transfer price for the sites and lease costs arising before the transfer. The report says set-up costs have since increased to £49 million for Wethersfield and £27 million for Scampton, and (paragraph 3.3) that the Home Office declared fruitless payments of £2.9 million preparing the former RAF base at Linton-on-Ouse. Figure 6 note 7 gives £2.9 million at Linton-on-Ouse and £0.5 million on vessels as spend on projects that did not go ahead.
- Wethersfield, Essex factsheet · Home Office (GOV.UK), 9 Sep 2026
Home Office factsheet, updated 9 September 2026: the site has 1,245 bedspaces (the regular occupancy cap has been 800, with 445 retained for contingency during the peak season), and the conditions that restricted occupancy to 580 bedspaces were confirmed as discharged on 31 January 2025. It gives no count of residents.
- 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.
- 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.
- Asylum Accommodation: Follow Up (oral evidence) · House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, 9 Jun 2026
Transcript of the Home Affairs Committee session of 9 June 2026. On Crowborough: the minister, Alex Norris, said the Home Office had not published a cost but had spent £7.5 million on it so far (Q107); Home Office official Andrew Larter said £2 million was spent on mobilisation and, with health, police and some Ministry of Defence facilities-management costs, the total to date was £7.1 million (Q109); he said the site runs under a contract change notice, as Wethersfield did (Q112); Clearsprings' Clare Pearson said there were 480 residents, increasing by two lots of 30 a week (Q24); the capacity was on a trajectory to 540 (Q90); and the minister said a figure for 12 months of cost was not one he could make readily available and that it would be in the Home Office accounts (Q123). The minister also said the Government's aspiration for Cameron Barracks was for 300 more places.
- The Home Office's management of asylum accommodation · House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, 27 Oct 2025
Home Affairs Committee report HC 580 of 27 October 2025. Paragraph 25 says the Home Office estimates that Wethersfield is now less costly to run per person per night than hotels (£132, compared with £144.98), citing the minister's letter of 8 October 2025; the exclusion of £105 million set-up costs from that comparison is the Committee's own understanding, not the minister's wording. Paragraph 39 says that in September 2024 the Home Office cancelled plans for an asylum accommodation site at RAF Scampton after concluding that it was not value for money, and lost £48.5 million that had been invested in the site (citing the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25, p.189), and that in September 2023 it spent £15.4 million on the purchase of the Northeye Estate in Bexhill. Paragraph 81 says Wethersfield can usually accommodate up to 800 people and that the Home Office had temporarily increased its capacity to 1,245.
- 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.
- Controversial plans to house asylum seekers at Cameron Barracks scrapped by Home Office · STV News, 25 Jun 2026
STV News (25 June 2026) reports that plans to house asylum seekers at Cameron Barracks in the Highlands have been scrapped by the Home Office. It says the plan was delayed after major refurbishment works worth £1.3 million were approved for January, and that it is not known whether the works, including asbestos removal from the basement boiler room, were carried out.
- Written ministerial statement HCWS155 on asylum accommodation sites · UK Parliament (Alex Norris, Minister for Border Security and Asylum), 29 Jun 2026
Written ministerial statement of 29 June 2026. It says the Government has decided not to proceed with Cameron Barracks in Scotland as a potential site for asylum accommodation and that it will be returned to the Ministry of Defence; that it will seek to extend the use of Crowborough and expand both the capacity and duration of use at Wethersfield; and that three new ex-military sites are under consideration: MoD Barnham, MoD Bicester and MoD Linton-on-Ouse.
- 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.
- 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.
- Former prison site earmarked for asylum seekers to be redeveloped for housing · ITV News Meridian, 17 Feb 2026
ITV News Meridian (17 February 2026) reports that the Government's housing and regeneration agency confirmed the HMP Northeye site in Bexhill has been formally transferred from the Home Office to Homes England. It gives no loss or write-down figure.
- 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.