RAF Linton-on-Ouse: Cancelled Asylum Site Profile
The proposal to accommodate up to 1,500 unaccompanied adult male asylum seekers at the former RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire was announced by the Home Office in April 2022 and dropped in August 2022, four months later, following sustained opposition from Hambleton District Council, North Yorkshire County Council, local residents and the area's Conservative MP, Kevin Hollinrake. No asylum seekers were ever moved in. The NAO reported that the Home Office declared fruitless payments of £2.9 million preparing the site[4]NAO. In June 2026 a written ministerial statement named Linton-on-Ouse as one of three ex-military sites under consideration[5]GOV.UK.
Fruitless payments declared
£2,900,000
Fruitless payments declared: £2,900,000
Breakdown
The NAO reports that the Home Office declared fruitless payments of £2.9 million preparing the former RAF base at Linton-on-Ouse (HC 635, paragraph 3.3 and Figure 6 note 7). No breakdown has been published.
- Fruitless payments preparing the site, 2022-23 (NAO)£2,900,000
- Total£2,900,000
This is the figure the cited source gives for money paid or lost on a site that never housed anyone. It is not calculated from a nightly rate.
Key Facts
Background
RAF Linton-on-Ouse was a Royal Air Force flying training base in North Yorkshire, about 10 miles north-west of York, which ceased operations as an RAF station in March 2020. The adjacent village of Linton-on-Ouse has a resident population of roughly 700.
In April 2022 the Home Office, led by then Home Secretary Priti Patel, announced plans to repurpose the base as an asylum reception centre for up to 1,500 unaccompanied adult men. The proposed intake would have more than doubled the population of the village overnight, setting up an immediate confrontation with the local authority and residents.
Opposition
Opposition to the Linton-on-Ouse plan came from an unusually broad coalition. Hambleton District Council and North Yorkshire County Council formally opposed the proposal and warned it was unworkable without adequate services, transport, healthcare and community infrastructure.
The area's Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake publicly opposed the plan, making Linton-on-Ouse one of the earliest examples of a Conservative MP opposing his own government's asylum accommodation strategy. Residents formed campaign groups, and legal challenges were threatened within weeks of the announcement.
Cancellation, August 2022
In August 2022, just four months after the April announcement, the Home Office formally dropped the plan. The Yorkshire Post reported that the department cited “site complexities” as the reason, though the decision was widely understood to reflect the combined weight of council, political and community opposition, and the legal risk the Home Office would have faced had the scheme proceeded[2].
The House of Commons Library's overview of the large-sites programme records Linton-on-Ouse alongside RAF Scampton and Northeye as sites that absorbed public money without ever opening[1]. The NAO, in its 2024 programme-level investigation, made the same structural point: the large-sites model was expected to cost more than hotels and to deliver fewer places than planned[3].
The Cost Figure
The £2.9 million shown in the callout above is the figure the National Audit Office reports: fruitless payments the Home Office declared in 2022-23 for preparing the former RAF base[4]NAO. The NAO gives no split of it. It adds that the project was cancelled after the Ministry of Defence withdrew its offer of preferential access to the land in August 2022[4]NAO. This page does not estimate any other cost for the site.
Timeline
Timeline
Mar 2020
RAF Linton-on-Ouse ceased flying training operations
Apr 2022
Home Office announces asylum reception plan
Up to 1,500 unaccompanied adult men proposed by then-Home Secretary Priti Patel.
Apr to Aug 2022
Coordinated local and political opposition
Hambleton District Council, North Yorkshire County Council, residents and Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake formally oppose the plan.
Aug 2022
Plan cancelled
Home Office cites "site complexities". No asylum seekers were ever moved in.
2022-23
Fruitless payments of £2.9m declared
The NAO reports that the Home Office declared fruitless payments of £2.9m preparing the site.
29 Jun 2026
Named as one of three ex-military sites under consideration
A written ministerial statement names MoD Barnham, MoD Bicester and MoD Linton-on-Ouse.
Legacy
Linton-on-Ouse is the quickest cancellation in the UK's large-sites programme to date. From announcement to withdrawal took under four months. The template it established (broad local coalition + council resolution + legal threat + sympathetic local MP) is essentially the same template that later defeated Northeye and Scampton, and that has shaped local responses to subsequent sites such as Crowborough and Cameron Barracks. In June 2026 a written ministerial statement named MoD Linton-on-Ouse as one of three new ex-military sites under consideration for asylum accommodation, alongside MoD Barnham and MoD Bicester[5]GOV.UK.
Sources
- 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.
- Home Office drops Linton-on-Ouse asylum centre plans · Yorkshire Post, Aug 2022
Yorkshire Post coverage of the Home Office's August 2022 decision to drop plans to house up to 1,500 asylum seekers at the former RAF Linton-on-Ouse, four months after the plan was first announced and following sustained opposition from Hambleton District Council, residents, and Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.