{"id":183464,"date":"2025-10-07T15:06:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T15:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/183464\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T15:06:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T15:06:10","slug":"fury-as-asylum-seekers-to-be-housed-in-this-uk-town-centre-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/183464\/","title":{"rendered":"Fury as asylum seekers to be housed in this UK town centre | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fury has erupted in a UK town<\/a> after it was confirmed that asylum seekers will be placed slap bang in the middle of the town centre. The Leader of Harlow<\/a> Council, Cllr Dan Swords says he will not stand back and allow his town to be \u201ctreated as a dumping ground for a failed policy\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Labour Government is to place asylum seekers into Redstone House (now called Endeavour House), the Harlow town centre building only reopened in September after 20 families were told to leave the property in May following significant safety concerns. At Endeavour House, one two-bedroom flat is advertised at \u00a31,575 per month – a rise of more than \u00a3500 on many tenants’ previous rates. \u00a0Fiercely opposing the plan, Cllr Swords has written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood<\/a> to voice his concerns.<\/p>\n

Calling the move a \u201cbetrayal\u201d the councilor insists the council will \u201cdo everything in our power to stop this\u201d, describing the proposal as \u201cwrong for Harlow, wrong for our town centre, and wrong for our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cllr Swords said: \u201cRedstone House was shut down because it was unsafe. The tenants who were placed there by London boroughs were rightly moved back to those boroughs. Now the Government wants to bring that same unsafe building back into use \u2013 right in the heart of our town centre \u2013 to house asylum seekers. That is reckless, irresponsible, and a betrayal of our community.<\/p>\n

The Council Leader warned that such a move would be a \u201cdisaster for Harlow, undermining years of hard work, investment, and planning to rebuild and regenerate the town centre\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have fought to secure hundreds of millions of pounds to transform Harlow \u2013 to build new homes, new shops, and new public spaces. Turning Redstone House into asylum accommodation would undo all of that progress and show a staggering disregard for the people of Harlow” said Cllr Swords.<\/p>\n

He added that placing migrants in Endeavour House risks “provoking serious and destabilising unrest”.<\/p>\n

Cllr Swords said: \u201cWe believe in Harlow homes for Harlow people. We believe in standing up for our town. We have come too far and worked too hard to see the future of our town centre put at risk by such a short-sighted, unsafe, and irresponsible decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Home Office\u2019s approach is not only wrong \u2013 it is dangerous. It risks provoking serious and destabilising unrest. Harlow is a compassionate town, but compassion must be matched with competence and common sense, not exploited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cllr Swords has demanded an urgent meeting with the Home Secretary to discuss the proposal and its implications for Harlow, warning that the council will \u201coppose the plan politically, legally, and publicly\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe fight every day to make Harlow safer and stronger for our residents. If the Government goes ahead with this plan, it will directly undermine that safety \u2013 putting our children, our families, and our community at risk. That is not something I, or this council, will ever accept.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m asking the people of Harlow to back me to fight the Government on this. We will not stand by while our town is treated as a dumping ground for failed policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Property Harlow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fury has erupted in a UK town after it was confirmed that asylum seekers will be placed slap…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1417,81210,59,57,58,81211,81208,81214,81212,285,50,81209,56,14177,81213,54,55],"class_list":["post-183464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-asylum-seekers","tag-cllr-dan-swords","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-harlow-asylum-seekers","tag-harlow-council","tag-harlow-migrants","tag-home-secretary-shabana-mahmood","tag-migrant-crisis","tag-news","tag-redstone-house","tag-uk","tag-uk-section","tag-uk-asylum-seekers","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}