The Home Office is looking afresh at potential disused military sites for asylum seeker housing after it was handed £150m in the Budget to speed up the closure of migrant hotels.
Ministers have already announced proposals to turn three defunct Ministry of Defence (MoD) bases into housing for around 3,300 male migrants while their asylum claims are assessed. These are RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, Bicester Garrison in Oxfordshire and RAF Barnham in Suffolk.
The Chancellor, John Healey, last week announced funding of £150m for “additional large sites” to house asylum seekers. The Government has pledged to end the use of hotels as accommodation for migrants by 2029.
Five teenagers stabbed at Halloween party – what we know
Five teenagers have been seriously injured after being stabbed at a Halloween party in Hampshire, police have said.
The force has appealed for witnesses and anyone with information to come forward.
What we know so far
- Officers were called to Park Road in Chandler’s Ford, near Eastleigh, shortly after 10.30pm on Saturday.
- Hampshire Police said it believes an unknown group gained entry to a party before the stabbings.
- An eyewitness told the BBC they saw someone running out of the house shouting he had been stabbed, and that he was being chased by two people.
- The injured teens – three boys aged 16 and two aged 17 – were taken to hospital.
- Another eyewitness said ambulances and an air ambulance had attended.
- A police cordon remained in place on Sunday while officers continued their investigation.
My thoughts are with the parents of the boys, the boys and the whole community.
Senior investigating officer Det Ch Insp Elizabeth Pirie acknowledged the impact on local residents.
Eastleigh MP Liz Jarvis told the BBC: “The community is in shock this morning that such an awful thing could have occurred.”
A closer look at the detail
- Two churches in the area have opened their doors to offer support.
- Jarvis urged people to not “share information online” and “let the police do their job”.
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Virgin Media O2 plans major job cuts – what we know
Virgin Media O2 is set to cull thousands of jobs as the telecoms giant attempts to plug billions of pounds of debt and navigate a market with increasingly cheaper rivals.
Here is everything we know so far.
Mounting debt and competition
Virgin Media O2’s total debt stands at £27.2bn, according to its latest accounts.
The broadband provider is also tackling competition from smaller, cheaper providers like Hyperoptic, Community Fibre, Gigaclear and YouFibre, as well as behemoths like BT.
BT recently inked a deal to buy rival TalkTalk, which Virgin Media O2 has firmly opposed.
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Senior leadership changes under way
Virgin Media O2 has not finalised the number of roles to be cut, but it is likely to be a large chunk of its 16,000-strong workforce, the BBC reported.
The majority of the affected roles are not customer-facing and a number of senior leadership changes are already under way.
Virgin Media O2 is also expected to review its use of contractors and suppliers alongside the job cuts.
Union working to ‘mitigate number of redundancies’
Disappointing and very unsettling.
Virgin Media O2 declined to comment. The Prospect union, which represents staff, called the cuts “disappointing and very unsettling”.
Prospect’s Noel McClean said the union was “working with employers to explore ways to mitigate the number of redundancies”.
How varying your bedtime could be bad for your heart
Varying your bedtime – including staying up late on weekends or doing shift work – could be bad for your heart and increase the risk of strokes, according to new research.
Sleep experts also found that varying the length of sleep too much – like having a long lie-in or pulling an all-nighter, may also have poor health outcomes.
Increased risk of heart problems
The study looked at several factors: how many hours a person slept each night, how much of the night was spent in light, deep and REM sleep, as well as how long a person was awake after first falling asleep.
- Researchers also looked at whether sleep duration, bedtime and wake-up time changed from night to night over roughly six months, as well as the usual times a person fell asleep and woke up.
- The number of “sleep cycles” completed each night were also examined.
- The results showed changes in sleep timing from night to night were linked to a 20 to 23 per cent higher risk of a heart attack, stroke and heart failure.
While we often focus on getting a full eight hours of sleep every night, having a regular sleep schedule – consistent , wake times, and sleep duration from night to night – is a practical, actionable step anyone can take that may help protect their heart and blood vessels.
Dr Nguyen Minh Tuan Viet, a neuroscientist and Lead researcher ON THE STUDY
A closer look at the study
Researchers analysed sleep data from more than 10,000 adults as part of the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us research programme in the US.
Participants, who had an average age of 53 and had no signs of a heart or metabolic disease, wore sleep tracking devices for around six months.
They were then followed for almost four years to see if they suffered heart issues.
The effects
- 1Every 29-minute increase in sleep from night to night was also linked with a 29 per cent higher risk of having a disease of the heart muscle, which leaves the heart unable to pump enough blood through the body, and a 20 per cent higher risk of heart failure.
- 2Meanwhile, having a greater number of complete “sleep cycles” each night led to a 28 per cent lower risk of atrial arrhythmia, a common type of irregular heartbeat.
- 3In contrast, sleeping longer than usual was linked to a 55 per cent higher risk of heart attack or stroke.
Could the UK see a serious bird flu outbreak?
In the western US state, mink raised for their fur are dying from bird flu.
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Pandemic potential
While scientists have long recognised the pandemic potential of bird flu, the presence in minks takes the threat status to the next level, says Professor Wendy Barclay, a virologist at Imperial College London.
“This creates an even higher risk to humans than before,” she said.
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How the virus could evolve
Minks’ nose and lungs are similar to humans’ – so much so that closely related ferrets are used in research instead of people.
While for most people, flu is relatively mild, the infection causes a surge of deaths every winter.
And every so often, the virus undergoes some major genetic changes leading to a higher toll, which gets called a pandemic flu.
Not easily spread
Bird flu has occasionally spread to poultry farms, as well as some dairy farms in the US. So far, there have been a small number of farm workers who have caught bird flu from animals and died.
Because the virus is adapted to birds, this strain of flu does not seem to spread easily from person to person. But previous research suggests that one genetic change to strains found on US dairy farms could improve transmission to humans.
Autumn outbreak is a red flag
Another worry is that the mink could be perfect incubators, allowing different flu strains to swap genes. Called reassortment, this process is known to have triggered previous human pandemics, including the one in 2009.
Mink can harbour both human and bird flu strains. The fact this mink outbreak is happening in autumn, when human seasonal flu rises, is also a red flag, says Dr Simon Williams, a public health researcher at Swansea University.
He said: “It increases the risk of a virus with pandemic potential reassorting in somebody working on that farm who has seasonal flu.”
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Flu pandemic preparations
- The UK Health Security Agency declined to comment on whether it had taken any specific measures in response to the mink outbreak when asked by The i Paper.
- But the agency’s Dr Richard Puleston said it “stands ready to initiate an appropriate public health response” if needed.
- As of 2025, the NHS fortunately had £25m worth of PPE stockpiled following the Covid-19 pandemic. Rapid diagnostic tests also shouldn’t be overlooked in terms of the UK’s ability to combat an outbreak.
£150m to convert a ‘handful of Army sites’
Treasury sources told The i Paper that the £150m is “new money” which will fund construction on as-yet unspecified “military bases”.
Speaking after last week’s Budget, Healey said the funding had been allocated for 2027-28 and would be spent on opening a “handful of Army sites that we’re making available to the Home Office for asylum”.
The Home Office declined to say which sites the funding will be used on. However it is understood the department will announce any additional locations for asylum seeker accommodation in due course.
A Home Office spokesperson said they want to achieve a “fairer distribution” of housing for asylum seekers across the country by closing hotels and “moving to alternative accommodation”.
This includes “former military sites, which are designed to be self-contained to reduce the impact on local communities”.
The number of asylum seekers living in hotel accommodation has halved in the past 12 months and stood at 16,000 in June. This compares to a peak of 56,000 in 2023.
The total number of migrants expected to be housed across all newly-sourced military sites has not been disclosed.
A total of 1,350 male migrants are currently being housed at two ex-military locations in Crowborough, East Sussex, and Wethersfield, Essex.
Ministers are also pressing ahead with consultations for the sites in North Yorkshire, Oxfordshire and Suffolk despite fierce opposition in all three locations including one voting to “leave the UK”.
The 120 defence sites up for sale
The apparent intensification of efforts to repurpose other MoD bases raises the question of which additional sites are likely to be scrutinised by the Home Office to potentially sit alongside the three locations already announced.
Among the documents available to officials is a list of 120 defence sites, including barracks and airfields, selected for disposal before 2034. In total, the sites could fit more than 23,000 homes in locations from Catterick in North Yorkshire, to Chilwell in Nottinghamshire.
The blueprint, which is part of a programme to reduce the MoD estate across the UK by about 40 per cent, is designed to release land for development purposes such as civilian housing and business parks.
It is understood the list could also be used to identify locations that could provide temporary asylum seeker accommodation for the Home Office. Among the locations listed on the document are Linton-on-Ouse and Barnham.
One local authority official involved with previous consultations with the Home Office about asylum seeker accommodation told The i Paper: “The Home Office has its own list of possible locations which is compiled from various sources.
“My strong impression is that it is under constant review as places are assessed and either discounted, or put forward for further consideration.”
Rejected bases back as proposed asylum sites
The Home Office announced last October that it would use Cameron Barracks, a facility in Inverness, to house up to 300 asylum seekers. But plans were dropped this summer following protests.
However, ministers have also returned to previously rejected sites as they seek to increase capacity.
Linton-on-Ouse, a former RAF base north of York, was originally earmarked for asylum seeker housing by Boris Johnson’s administration in 2022.
These plans were withdrawn in the face of opposition from locals, but resurrected again when Sir Keir Starmer was prime minister.
Other locations previously discounted by the Home Office could also be reconsidered in the light of the Treasury’s £150m allocation.
In 2023, Catterick Garrison, which covers an area of 10 sq km and is one of the largest military bases in Europe, was added to a list of potential asylum sites under the government of Rishi Sunak, who is the MP for the area.
The former prime minister later said officials had ruled that the base was not suitable for housing asylum seekers.
Kevin Foster, an independent who represents the Catterick area on North Yorkshire Council, said: “I have heard nothing and I would be very surprised if the issue was up for reconsideration. It was decided that there are multiple reasons why the site would not be suitable.”
Dwindling number of potential sites
However the Government’s military property hunt risks being complicated by a dwindling number of suitable asylum seeker accommodation sites.
Several locations previously assessed and put forward as possible sites have since been removed from contention.
They include RAF Scampton, a former Dambusters base in Lincolnshire where £60m was spent on preparations for asylum seeker housing before the idea was scrapped in 2024.
Local MP Sir Edward Leigh of the Conservative Party recently said the site will instead be taken over by a “world-class defence company”. He claimed the Home Office told him “there will be no migrants” at the facility.
Two other potential asylum sites – Forthside Barracks in Stirling and the Kinnegar Logistics Base in Belfast – have since been purchased for redevelopment as a film studio complex and a Police Service of Northern Ireland facility, respectively.
The local authority official added: “The reality is that there aren’t actually that many locations that meet the criteria [for housing migrants]. And that’s before you begin to deal with inevitable opposition and possible legal issues. I would suggest that the Home Office have got a difficult task ahead of them.”