Bell Hotel in Epping can still house asylum seekers after legal challenge fails

Asylum seekers will continue to be housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping after a High Court judge dismissed a local council’s bid for an injunction on planning grounds.

Mr Justice Mould ruled that Epping Forest District Council (EFDC) had failed to demonstrate a breach of planning control serious enough to warrant the drastic remedy of an injunction against the hotel’s owner, Somani Hotels.

The Home Office, intervening in the case, branded the council’s application “misconceived” and successfully argued that the statutory duty to provide contingency accommodation for asylum seekers outweighed any localised planning concerns.

Delivering judgment, the judge declared: “I have not been persuaded that an injunction is a commensurate response to that postulated breach of planning control.”

He emphasised a “continuing need” for hotels to serve as emergency housing, describing this obligation as a “significant counterbalancing factor” in the planning balance.

EFDC had contended that converting the hotel to accommodate asylum seekers amounted to a material change of use, triggering increasingly frequent protests and community tensions.

Yet the court found no evidence to support claims of heightened criminality or anti-social behaviour among the residents.

Mr Justice Mould demanded an “evidence-based” and “statistically sound analysis” to substantiate any such propensity, noting: “There is no such evidence before the court.”

He rejected anecdotal assertions, stating: “The fact that persons accommodated in asylum accommodation… from time to time commit criminal offences or behave antisocially provides no reliable basis for asserting any particular propensity of asylum seekers to engage in criminal or anti-social behaviour.

“Persons who are members of the settled population also commit crimes and behave antisocially from time to time.”

The ruling comes against the backdrop of a high-profile incident involving Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an Ethiopian national housed at the Bell Hotel shortly after arriving in the United Kingdom.

Kebatu was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment in September for sexually assaulting a girl in Epping, only to be mistakenly released, re-arrested, and ultimately deported with a £500 payment.

Protests outside the hotel erupted on 11 July 2025, prompting EFDC to seek urgent relief.