SERCO are planning to establish asylum seeker accommodation in the villages of Kibworth and Great Glen. They are the Government’s appointed contractors and are looking for properties to house around 14 migrants in the first instance, as part of the Government's asylum dispersal policy.
These villages are totally inappropriate places to house such people - far from any resources they might need, or people who speak their languages.
Councils do have powers including Article 4 directions to prevent the creation of Houses of Multiple Occupation (“HMOs”) in particular areas and I will be encouraging Harborough District Council to use every means at its disposal to stop this.
Some people will say - where should they go? The solution to the asylum crisis is not to pay for more and more asylum housing as Keir Starmer is - it is to stop the flow of illegal arrivals in the first place, by leaving ECHR and deporting all illegal arrivals immediately. We have published a clear plan to do that.
- I am seeking an urgent meeting with SERCO
- I will encourage Harborough District Council to use its planning powers to resist this in any way it can, as other councils have done (e.g. regarding the Bell Hotel in Essex)
- To let SERCO and the Council know your view, please sign the petition against this below