WARRINGTON Borough Council has not received any contact from the Government regarding the end of hotels in the town being used to house migrants.

It comes following an announcement on Monday that the first 50 hotels across the UK will stop housing immigrants by the end of January.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said this is as a result of a more than 20 per cent drop in small boat crossings in the English Channel compared to last year.

The Home Office has already notified local authorities, MPs and the accommodation providers for the first 50 hotels.

However, a Warrington Borough Council source confirmed that the local authority has not been contacted regarding any hotel contracts to house migrants ending.

This is despite confirmation that two hotels in neighbouring areas are set to have their contracts terminated.

One is The Suites Hotel in Knowsley – the scene of violent disorder earlier this year – while Wigan MP Lisa Nandy was passed a hand-written note from Mr Jenrick letting her know that he had been able to order the end of a migrant hotel in her constituency, but it is not known which one yet.

Warrington has three migrant hotels at present, namely Holiday Inn Woolston, Fir Grove Hotel in Grappenhall and Paddington House Hotel, with nearby Daresbury Park Hotel also closed to house migrants.

When asked by the Warrington Guardian, a spokesman for the Home Office confirmed that it is not planning to publicly publish a list of hotels set to stop housing migrants.

The Home Office said that initial efforts will focus on hotels that can be exited quickly, with migrants moving to other parts of the UK’s asylum estate, including the Bibby Stockholm barge.

Mr Jenrick said: “Taxpayers cannot be expected to foot the eye-watering bill for the use of hotels to accommodate individuals making illegal, dangerous and wholly unnecessary small boat crossings.

“Our strategy to stop the boats is making progress, and with small boat arrivals down more than 20 per cent compared with last year, we can now start to restore these hotels to their rightful use for local communities.

“We remain absolutely determined, through the implementation of the Illegal Migration Act and our Rwanda partnership, to dismantle the smuggling gangs’ business models and stop the boats entirely.”

The cost for temporary migrant accommodation is currently around £8million-a-day to the taxpayer.

The Home Office added that the Government is determined that people arriving in the UK illegally are detained and promptly removed to their country of origin or a safe third country.

It comes after two migrants living in Holiday Inn Woolston and Daresbury Park Hotel were jailed for a combined two years and four months yesterday, Wednesday, for entering the country illegally.

The Government says the closure of hotels is also possible due to optimising room sharing at other sites and alternative accommodation sites, such as former military bases and the Bibby Stockholm barge.

It adds that since the signing of the Joint Communiqué with the government of Albania in December 2022, more than 4,100 Albanian nationals with no right to be in the UK have been returned.

This includes some people who were returned 48 hours after illegally arriving by small boat.

There has also been a clamp down on rogue employers, with 4,721 illegal working visits carried out between the start of January and the end of September.

A shake up of civil penalties in August also means employers of illegal workers are set to face fines of up to £60,000.