A High Court judge granted Epping Forest District Council a temporary injunction on 19 Aug., preventing the Home Office from housing asylum seekers at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex. About 140 men living in the property must be relocated by 16:00 BST on 12 Sept., pending a full hearing later this autumn. The ruling hinged on planning law, with Mr Justice Eyre finding that the hotel’s prolonged use as migrant accommodation breached the Town and Country Planning Order 1987. Government lawyers argued the injunction could ‘substantially interfere’ with the Home Secretary’s statutory duty to provide shelter and warned it might encourage further protests, some of which have turned violent in Epping. Security Minister Dan Jarvis said officials are “looking at contingency options” and have not ruled out an appeal. The decision has energised other local authorities. Conservative-run Broxbourne and the 12 councils controlled by Reform UK are seeking legal advice on replicating Epping’s approach, while the Home Office cautions that widespread copy-cat cases could unravel its nationwide hotel programme. Roughly 32,000 asylum seekers are currently accommodated in 210 hotels that the government plans to phase out by 2029. The court’s intervention exposes a clash between local planning powers and national immigration policy at a time when immigration tops voter concerns. Ministers now face the dual challenge of finding alternative accommodation within weeks for those removed from the Bell Hotel and of defending a hotel-based system that could be undermined by further injunctions.