The number of asylum seekers being housed in hotels has risen by 8% to 32,059 in a year, according to data.

The data also shows that the government is processing asylum applications much more quickly, with 71,000 cases awaiting approval, relating to 91,000 people, compared with 134,000 two years ago.

The figures come amid growing clamour from councils to block hotels being used to house asylum seekers through legal action, after a court ruled that more than 100 applicants staying in Essex should be removed.

The high court judgment has led to ministers bracing for further legal challenges from across the country and pressure on the government to find other places to house people.

The latest Home Office figures, published on Thursday as part of the usual quarterly immigration statistics, cover Labour’s first year in office.

There were 32,059 asylum seekers in UK hotels by the end of June, up from 29,585 at the same point a year earlier, when the Conservatives were still in power, but down slightly on the 32,345 figure at the end of March.

The latest number is still below the peak of 56,042 asylum seekers in hotels at the end of September 2023 under the Tories.

For the first time in four years, the asylum applications backlog has fallen below 100,000 people. It is now just over 70,000 cases, relating to almost 91,000 people – down by 18% from a year earlier and its lowest since September 2021.

In the year ending June 2025, the Home Office forcibly removed 9,100 people – up a quarter on the previous year. More than half were foreign national offenders who were being deported at the end of sentences.

Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “Bringing the asylum system back from the brink of collapse is a genuine achievement in the government’s first year. The increase in asylum decisions means refugees can begin to rebuild their lives sooner, and the use of costly hotels can be ended faster.”

Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said: “The action we have taken in the last 12 months – increasing returns of failed asylum seekers by over 30%, cutting asylum costs by 11%, reducing the backlog by 18% and our forthcoming plans to overhaul the failing asylum appeal system – are crucial steps to restoring order, and putting an end to the chaotic use of asylum hotels that we inherited from the previous government.”

On Tuesday, the Conservative-run authority in Epping Forest won a temporary high court injunction to remove people from the Bell hotel.

About 140 asylum seekers must leave the hotel by 12 September after the high court imposed a temporary injunction against them staying there.

The Labour-run Wirral and Tamworth councils are among more than 10 that are reportedly considering legal challenges to close hotels housing asylum seekers in their area.

On Tuesday, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, named three Conservative councils that were considering legal action in efforts to shut down asylum hotels in their areas.

Asked how many Tory councils were considering legal action, he told BBC Breakfast: “There are certainly a number who are actively considering it. Broxbourne, which is next door to Epping, is one of them. I think Reigate and Banstead is another, Hillingdon is yet a third.

“So, I think there are many up and down the country who are looking at this following the Epping ruling.”

Whitehall sources said the government was expected to appeal against the Epping ruling.

Charles Falconer, a Labour peer who served as justice secretary under Tony Blair and was previously Starmer’s shadow attorney general, urged ministers to appeal.

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme the judgment “causes great problems” because it “gives rise to the expectation that some asylum hotels can be closed” but without indicating which ones.

“I very strongly urge the government – I don’t know what they’re going to do – to appeal and get some certainty, first of all on which should be closed … and which shouldn’t, secondly to deal with the question of a reasonable timescale in relation to this, and thirdly to deal with this very troublesome issue: namely, do demonstrations outside these hostels lead it to it being more likely that they will be closed,” he said.

The Democratic Unionist party (DUP) is seeking to remove asylum seekers from hotels in Northern Ireland following the landmark ruling in England.

Antrim & Newtownabbey borough council has launched an enforcement investigation into the use of the Chimney Corner in Mallusk to house asylum seekers after a complaint by the DUP Stormont assembly member Trevor Clarke.

The party – the second-biggest in Northern Ireland – will lodge complaints about the other two hotels that house asylum seekers in two other council areas, Clarke said.

Wednesday’s high court ruling that the Bell hotel in Essex cannot be used to house asylum seekers because of a breach of planning rules paves the way for similar legal challenges, Clarke said.

“Housing asylum seekers in hotels without first securing a ‘change of use’ through the proper planning process (from hotel to hostel or immigration centre accommodation) constitutes a breach of planning regulations. No one is above the law, not even government departments. If the Home Office or its contractors wish to place large numbers of illegal immigrants into our communities, they must follow the same planning rules as everyone else.”

The other hotels that house asylum seekers in Northern Ireland are in the Causeway Coast and Glens and the Ards and North Down council areas, the Irish News reported.

Home Office spending on asylum in the UK stood at £4.76bn in 2024-25, down 12% from a record £5.38bn in 2023-24, government figures show. The total covers all Home Office costs related to asylum, including direct cash support and accommodation, plus wider staffing and other migration and borders activity.

Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation, known as contingency accommodation, if they are awaiting assessment of their claim or have had a claim approved and there is not enough longer-term accommodation available.

When there is not enough housing, the Home Office, which has a legal obligation to provide accommodation to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute, can move people to alternatives such as hotels and large sites, such as former military bases.