High Court allows legal challenge over Crowborough asylum camp (original) (raw)
Court allows fresh bid to challenge asylum camp
Image source, Stuart Brock/Andalou/Getty
Image caption,
Crowborough Shield said it welcomed the decision
Permission has been granted for a fresh legal challenge over the use of Crowborough Training Camp as asylum accommodation.
Lawyers for Crowborough Shield CIC said the High Court had ruled that they could proceed with a judicial review, adding the case had been categorised as "a significant planning claim".
Campaigners have raised concerns about planning law, environmental compliance, transparency and fairness.
The Home Office said: "This government is removing the incentives drawing illegal migrants to Britain. That is why we will close every single asylum hotel, moving asylum seekers into basic accommodation like the Crowborough former military site."
Image source, EPA/Shuttershock
Image caption,
Crowborough Shield has campaigned for a judicial review into the asylum camp
Crowborough Shield said it welcomed the decision, adding that its concerns about the lawfulness of the decision‑making process would now be fully considered by the High Court.
Russell‑Cooke lawyers, representing the group, said the decision was made on 20 April and is an Aarhus Convention claim, which limits how much individuals and community groups can be ordered to pay in environmental legal disputes.
Legal director Alix Rejman said: "We are delighted that the Court has granted permission for this new claim to proceed."
Image source, Getty
Image caption,
Crowborough Shield supports protests held weekly at the training camp
Kim Bailey, director and chairwoman of Crowborough Shield, said: "This is really positive news, it's what we've been working towards and none of this would be possible without everyone contributing in the ways they have."
Previously Wealden District Council (WDC) said it would not pursue any further legal action against the government's decision.
Bailey said she hoped the latest decision proved to the council that the case was "not hopeless".
She added: "If they genuinely have the community's best interests at heart as well as the asylum seekers then they will step up, do the right thing and take a full and active part in this case."
Tap the questions below
How many people are in asylum accommodation?
An asylum seeker is someone who wants to be in the UK because they say they cannot live safely in their own country due to persecution or violence.
The government must house an asylum seeker if they cannot financially support themselves while their claim is being considered. There were 93,653 people in asylum accommodation as of March 2026.
About 22% of those people, 20,885, were in hotels. These are used when there is not enough shared housing available, such as houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) or former military sites.
The government has pledged to stop the use of hotels by 2029.
More people are in hotels across the south of England than elsewhere in the UK, while HMOs are more common in the north of England and Scotland.
Numbers of asylum seekers in hotels by council area
Type in a postcode or the name of a local council below to see how many asylum seekers are housed in the area
How many people apply for asylum in the UK?
A total of 93,525 people applied for asylum in the UK from April 2025 to March 2026. This was down by 12% on the same period in the previous year.
Most people who arrive in the UK by small boat claim asylum, but they were only 42% of all asylum seekers from April 2025 to March 2026.
The rest include people who arrived by other illegal means or who came to the UK legally and applied for asylum while holding, or just after holding, a valid visa.
How big is the asylum backlog?
It can take years for the government to decide whether someone should be granted asylum.
In March 2026, 48,758 people - across 35,744 asylum applications - were waiting for an initial decision. The number of people awaiting an initial decision was down by 55% on the previous year.
As of December 2025, a further 80,333 refused asylum applications were part of a second backlog, waiting the outcome of an appeal in the courts. This was up by 91% on the previous year.
Together, these initial decision and appeal cases form the government’s total asylum applications backlog, which it has pledged to clear.
Refugee status was granted in about 39% of asylum decisions made by the Home Office from April 2025 to March 2026.
About 39% of asylum appeal cases concluded between January 2025 to December 2025 resulted in a previous refusal decision being overturned.
WDC is named as an interested party, but is not pursuing legal action itself.
It said: "We cannot talk about legal issues in detail because that could prejudice any further action and endanger the legal privilege which protects our legal advice from disclosure in any court proceedings."
The case has also prompted political reaction, with Sussex Weald MP Nusrat Ghani also urging the council to support the legal challenge.
She said: "Their action is a vital part of standing up for our community."
The judicial review is expected to be heard over one and a half days before the end of July.
The Home Office said it considers military sites as temporary accommodation, "with the aim of reducing the impact on communities and delivering better outcomes for taxpayers".
It added: "The population in asylum hotels has fallen by nearly 20% in the last year and by 45% since the peak under the previous government - helping reduce asylum support costs by nearly £1 billion."
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