Member's statement: Asylum Accommodation: North Down

Member's statement by Mr Stephen Dunne on 1 December 2025.

MLA

Mr Stephen Dunne

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

1 December 2025

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Asylum Accommodation: North Down

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5268595

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the decision last week by the Home Office to end the use of the Marine Court Hotel in Bangor in my North Down consistency as asylum accommodation. That was the right move and was long overdue. It highlights the failure of successive UK Governments to properly manage immigration in a controlled and responsible way. For many years, the Marine Court Hotel was a premier venue in North Down and a landmark that supported Bangor's tourism sector and, indeed, the local economy. Instead, it has been closed to the public and used for asylum accommodation at a very significant cost, causing concern across the local community. My constituents regularly raise those concerns with me. They are reasonable and fair-minded people; they are not motivated by intolerance. They are worried about planning pressures, housing shortages, the strain on our public services and the lack of transparency in how such decisions are made. One of the biggest issues is how the Home Office has been able to operate outside the normal planning framework. Local residents and businesses must follow every rule, yet the UK Government can change the use of a major hotel without scrutiny. If a shop puts up the wrong style of sign, for example, enforcement is often swift, but a hotel can effectively become a large house in multiple occupation (HMO) with zero accountability. That is why many believe that there is one law for the public and another for the Home Office and the UK Government. Equality before the law matters, and public trust depends on it. The impact on our area has been clear. A hospitality venue sitting idle has had an adverse impact on our local economy, but the pressures and impact extend much wider. Our GP surgeries and the wider NHS are under severe pressures — we hear, see and feel that daily — and our housing system is already stretched, with more than 49,000 households on the waiting list and over 37,000 in housing stress across Northern Ireland in every town, village and city. A broken asylum system only adds to those pressures while taxpayers cover the excessive cost of hotel-based accommodation. As the Home Office moves away from hotels, many people are asking, "What happens next?" There is a risk that Mears and the UK Government will start buying or leasing homes in our communities, further reducing available housing and increasing already high rents. Such parties as the Alliance Party, the SDLP and Sinn Féin continue to defend the current approach to immigration and recently voted against a DUP motion aimed at addressing illegal and uncontrolled immigration. That position speaks for itself. We will keep pressing the Government to fix the system and ensure fairness for local communities.

456 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:02 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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