[1andrew1]

Interesting but not unexpected. Labour's policy of not using asylum hotels should ease this as should its recruitment of 1,000 staff to clear the backlog of asylum applications.

Far-right riots centred on England’s deprivation hotspots

Seven of the ten most deprived areas of England witnessed riots in the past two weeks, according to a Financial Times analysis of where far-right violence flared across the country.

Many of the areas affected also have a higher-than-average proportion of asylum seekers in taxpayer-funded accommodation, a legacy of the previous Conservative government’s policy of housing migrants in hotels in cheaper areas while they are being processed.

As of Thursday afternoon, violence has broken out in 23 local authorities since July 30.

Seven — Middlesbrough, Blackpool, Liverpool, Hartlepool, Hull, Manchester and Blackburn — are in the top 10 most deprived areas, according to the government’s Indices of Deprivation.

Home Office data shows these seven are also home to some of the highest numbers of asylum seekers receiving government support and accommodation per capita of the population.

Liverpool is one of the top ten locations for asylum seekers receiving government support out of more than 300 local authorities in England.

“These are often communities that are already socio-economically deprived, and have high unemployment, which can contribute to a sense that there is competition for scant resources,” said Rob McNeil, deputy director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford.

He added that asylum accommodation tended to be concentrated in struggling areas because it was more affordable for the government.

Zoe Bantleman, a barrister and legal director of the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association, said the body had long opposed the Tory decision to house tens of thousands of asylum seekers in hotels in struggling towns and cities.

“Prior governments chose to place people seeking asylum in cheap hotels, with private companies profiting millions,” she said. “They ignored our calls to find people community-based accommodation in areas of the UK with the necessary support and infrastructure.”

She added: “Senior politicians then stigmatised people seeking asylum in hotels, for their cost to the public purse, making hotels a lightning pole for rioters.”

Around 35 per cent of the roughly 100,000 asylum seekers receiving government support were housed in hotels in March of this year, according to Home Office data.

https://www.ft.com/content/c8317b53-...7-59f9ac9267c9