EXCLUSIVE: The Home Office had planned to move hundreds of migrants onto an isolated rural estate into new homes originally earmarked for social housing.
The newbuild homes earmarked for asylum seekers (Image: Andrew Price)
Residents furious over plans to house up to 121 migrants in £250,000 newbuild homes are celebrating after a humiliating Labour U-turn. The Dutton Close estate, close to the village of Stoke Heath, Shropsshire, contains a handful of homes originally built for workers of a nearby Category C prison.
Land on the estate, which used to be a football pitch and club house, was bought by property developers to build new homes around five years ago. The site was later purchased by the Government contractor Serco. But locals were astonished when the Home Office announced a set of newbuild homes, originally earmarked as social housing, would be turned over to asylum seekers.
A Pakistani family-of-six were housed in one of the brand new properties on the road dubbed “Migrant Street” and local residents were told 21 of the new homes would accommodate between 83 and 121 asylum seekers. The move came as the Government phases out migrant hotels by 2029 and relocate people into “properties and ex-military sites”.
But residents argued the village was too cut off for asylum seekers – the nearest shop is four miles away, and the nearest bus stop is a half-an-hour walk. In a crunch meeting on Thursday night around 100 locals met with their Conservative MP Mark Pritchard who assured his constituents that the Home Office had told him in a phone call that the plans were “suspended”.
Helen Nelson questioned where the duty of care was from the Government towards locals (Image: Andrew Price)
And last night the Home Office told the Daily Express Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood had “directly intervened” to stop asylum seekers being moved to the estate, adding: “New homes should never house asylum seekers.”
The Pakistani family, who had been moved from Greater Manchester to the estate, have now been moved out. All that remains at the property is rotting rubbish in the back garden and a few pieces of furniture strewn around the inside of the house.
Despite the apparent good news of a reprieve, local homeowner Helen Nelson, 59, said she worried the Home Office response was just “smoke and mirrors”.
Helen, who works in sales and IT, has lived on the estate for four years with her husband Dave. She said trying to get answers from the Government, Serco and the local council had been an uphill struggle.
She added: “You end up overthinking everything in ways that you probably wouldn’t if people were honest, but this is because no one tells you anything.
Mum-of-two Samantha asked why her veteran husband received no housing support, but migrants do (Image: Andrew Price)
“There is no honesty or transparency as far as this issue is concerned and we end up with a millstone around our neck with our property that now just won’t sell because of the proposals.
“I know people have had valuers around and they have been told no one would buy there homes if this went ahead.
“I read somewhere that we as a nation have a duty of care for these people claiming asylum, but who looks after the duty of care towards ourselves?
“We seem to do so much for other people coming in, but I pay National Insurance, I pay tax, but where is the duty of care towards me?.”
Samantha Murphy, 36, has been on the estate with her husband and two children for two years. “My husband served in the Royal Irish Regiment and that’s the frustrating thing about the proposal to house the asylum seekers here,” she said.
“He was medically discharged but had no help from anyone with housing, but then these people can come in and get offered a house straight away after my husband has just done 12 years serving his country.”
Samantha said she saw the Home Office announcement as “positive” but she and local residents would still “keep fighting”.
Rotting rubbish left in the garden of the home used by the asylum family (Image: Andrew Price)
Ann Harrhy, 82, moved to the estate 58 years ago when her husband got a job at HMP Stoke Heath. Ann said: “What’s happening in this country is disgusting, the British people are being walked all over, we seem to have no rights. To move 120 plus people into those houses would have been ridiculous.
“Everyone kept saying this is a village, it’s not, it’s just a group of houses originally built for the prison. If the Government moved these asylum seekers here, I would be a prisoner in my own home because there is no way I would go outside.”
Mum-of-five Trudy Supersad, 65, has lived on the estate for 30 years. She said: “We thought this would be affordable housing for local people. This is a lovely area, there’s peace and quiet and that’s what everyone loves about it.
“The next thing we were told is that the immigrants would be coming in. It’s just not safe, there’s nothing for them (the asylum seekers) to do around here and I was worried for the safety of very young children who come play on the playground by these houses.
“You just don’t know what will happen, I don’t think women would have beeb safe either, people won’t want to go out walking their dogs.”
Trudy Supersad said she was worried the migrants could have been a danger towards children (Image: Andrew Price)
David Cooper, 60, and his wife Joanne, 54, moved to area from Birmingham none months ago attracted to the peace and quiet of the local area. David said: “I was gobsmacked when I first heard they were going to move migrants here. I moved here from Birmingham for a quieter life.
“You don’t know who these people are, if they broke into the country they are illegal straight away. It seems like migrants are top of the food chain when we have had to struggle for everything.”
Care worker Joanne said she had no problem with immigrants who are working in the UK. “I have worked witb people who have had visas to work here, that’s absolutely fine” she said, “I just don’t agree with hordes of young men coming to live here, that would be a disaster.”
The newbuild homes are right next to the isolated Dutton Close estate (Image: Andrew Price)
Parish Councillor Jason Scott, 58, said: “This is a housing estate in the middle of nowhere, we have a bus stop right at the entrace to the close, but we haven’t had a bus service for at least two or three years.
“From the Home Office point of view this does not work for the kind of people they want to put here, with the best will in the world this would create tensions, no matter who would be in the houses.”
A spokeswoman for the Home Office said: “New homes should never house asylum seekers. The Home Secretary has directly intervened to stop migrants being moved into the Stoke Heath development and no asylum seekers remain on site.
“Earlier this year, the Home Secretary introduced robust processes to ensure new-build sites can never be considered again.”