The owner of The Bell Hotel in Epping, Somani Hotels Ltd, is asking the Court of Appeal to overturn a High Court injunction that bars the property from accommodating asylum seekers. The injunction, obtained by Epping Forest District Council on planning-permission grounds, requires the migrants currently in the hotel to be moved out by 12 September. At Thursday’s hearing, the Home Office will also seek to overturn parts of the earlier ruling, challenging the judge’s refusal to let the government formally intervene in the dispute. Ministers maintain that hotels remain an essential, if costly, stop-gap while a backlog of asylum claims is processed but have pledged to phase out their use by the end of the current Parliament. The case has drawn nationwide attention after weeks of protests and counter-protests outside the 58-room hotel, prompting other local authorities to explore similar legal options against accommodation sites in their districts. A decision by the Court of Appeal could therefore set an important precedent for how councils and the Home Office manage the placement of asylum seekers pending longer-term housing solutions.