[Falkirk, 09.06.2026] Falkirk MP Euan Stainbank has welcomed a clear statement from Home Office Minister Alex Norris MP that he wants to see the Cladhan Hotel in Falkirk end its current use as Asylum Accommodation, following “dogged representations” from the Member of Parliament for Falkirk.
Responding to a question from Mr Stainbank on Monday the 8 June 2026 which encouraged quicker action to close asylum hotel accommodation in Scotland.
Speaking in Parliament, Alex Norris MP, Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum at the Home Office, said:
“I am conscious of this issue and think also of the Cladhan hotel in Falkirk and the impact on the local community, because my hon. Friend is rightly very dogged in raising this with me. I want to see that hotel closed.”
The Cladhan Hotel was opened for asylum accommodation by the Conservative Home Office in 2021, as part of a hotel system created while the asylum backlog spiralled out of control under the previous government.
At the peak of the crisis, up to 400 hotels were being used across the UK under contracts signed off by Conservative ministers. Many of those same ministers are now seeking to distance themselves from the consequences of the system they created.
The UK Labour Government has begun turning that system around. The asylum backlog has fallen by 55% in one year and is now at its lowest level since 2019. The number of people in asylum hotels has fallen by 35% since December 2025, from a peak of 56,000 in September 2023 to around 20,000 by the end of March 2026. All while the grant rate for asylum has not radically changed.
The Government is now spending £2.5 million less every day on asylum hotels, while also recovering £47 million in excess profits from hotel contractors operating under contracts approved by the previous Government.
Mr Stainbank said:
“This is a clear and welcome commitment from the Home Office minister: he wants to see the Cladhan Hotel closed.
“People in Falkirk deserve honesty about the Cladhan — how it started, what went wrong, and what is now being done to fix it.
“The use of the Cladhan did not appear out of nowhere. It was opened under the Conservative Home Office in 2021 as part of a failing response to an asylum system that they had allowed to spiral out of control.
“The contracts behind these hotels were signed off by Conservative ministers. They lost control of this system, left communities like Falkirk to live with the consequences, and now many of them are trying to rewrite history.
“Labour has inherited a broken asylum system, but we are starting to turn it around. The backlog is down, hotel use is down, costs are down, and millions in excess profits have been recovered from contractors.
“But I have been clear and consistent with ministers that national progress to bring control back to the system must mean progress for Falkirk.
“The Cladhan has had a real impact on the local community. It is wrong for those who live there and wrong for communities like Falkirk.”
ENDS
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