Military sites house 1,162 asylum seekers, about 1% of those on support, against 16,021 in hotels

1,162 people on two sites. At 30 June 2026, 744 people were at the former RAF Wethersfield in Essex and 418 at Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex, according to the Home Office’s quarterly statistics. Together that is about 1.2% of the 93,293 people on asylum support, against 16,021 in hotels.

Site	People, 30 June 2026	Capacity	Status
Wethersfield, Essex	744	1,245 bedspaces	In use; its special development order runs to April 2027
Crowborough, East Sussex	418	540	In use since 22 January 2026
Cameron Barracks, Inverness	0		Dropped in June 2026, never used
Napier Barracks, Kent	0		Use ended in 2025

The sites are not cheap. At the end of June 2025 the Home Office put Wethersfield at £132 per person per night, against £144.98 in a hotel and £23.25 in dispersal housing. Moving people from a hotel to a large site saves a little per night. Moving them into ordinary housing saves far more.

Performance is not being measured. Asked in Parliament, the Home Office said on 10 September 2026 that “there is currently no dedicated KPI regime in operation for hotels or the Wethersfield Large Site and performance-related penalties are not being applied.”

More are planned. The Home Office has proposed MoD Barnham, MoD Bicester and Linton-on-Ouse, which it says “could eventually house around 3,750”. Even at that scale, the large sites together would hold well under half the number now in hotels. Cameron Barracks, announced alongside Crowborough, was dropped in June 2026 and a minister confirmed on 21 September that it “was never used for temporary accommodation”.

How the count works. The Home Office records large sites in its “other accommodation” category, which it defines as alternative sites such as Wethersfield and Crowborough plus a very small number of people whose accommodation type could not be determined. At 30 June 2026 that category held 1,162, the same as the two sites combined.

Where people on asylum support are housed: how many asylum hotels are there.

Sources: Home Office, immigration system statistics, year ending June 2026. Home Office, Wethersfield and Crowborough factsheets. Alex Norris MP, letter to the Home Affairs Committee, 8 October 2025. Written answers 27030, 10 September 2026, and HL3145, 21 September 2026. Open Government Licence v3.0 and Open Parliament Licence.