Great Yarmouth Borough Council is taking enforcement action after the Home Office placed asylum seekers in a local hotel.

The council said that it has ‘serious concerns’ about the suitability of the accommodation and it said that the hotel needed the correct planning permission for the change of use.

The local authority also said there had been a ‘lack of dialogue’ with the council from either the hotel or the Home Office.

A spokesperson from Great Yarmouth Borough Council said: ‘We have only very recently become aware that a number of asylum seekers have been placed at the Victoria Hotel in Great Yarmouth.

‘We have serious concerns about the suitability of this accommodation for asylum seekers, and the hotel should have applied for the correct planning permission before any asylum seekers were housed. No application for change of use has been received to date and the council will pursue appropriate enforcement action where necessary.

‘We are therefore opposed to the way this situation has arisen and the lack of dialogue with ourselves and other stakeholders in the town. We have clearly communicated our views and concerns to both the hotel owner and the Home Office.’

‘We are also concerned about placing further strain on core services in an already highly populated and prime tourist area,’ they added. The council spokesperson said the council would ‘provide humanitarian support where necessary’.

A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We are dealing with an unprecedented increase in asylum cases but despite this we continue to ensure that the accommodation provided is safe, secure and leaves no one destitute.

'The Home Office does not comment on operational arrangements for individual hotels.'