Asylum accommodation HMOs in England: licensing, Article 4 and what the law actually says

Alessio Scannicchio

17h

9 min read

General information, not legal advice. Status as of 13 November 2026. Checked against GOV.UK, legislation.gov.uk, Hansard and official council pages on 13 November 2026. This guide covers England.

If you own or manage HMOs in England, you may be asking a practical question: do the usual licensing and planning rules apply when a house is used as Home Office dispersal accommodation? This guide sets out what the official sources say, and where the position is less certain.

It is not a comment on asylum policy. It is a reading of the rules, for landlords and agents.

Who provides asylum dispersal accommodation

The Home Office is responsible for housing people seeking asylum who would otherwise be destitute. It does this through regional Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts, often called AASC contracts.

The current prime contractors, awarded in 2019, are:

Serco, in the North West and in the Midlands and East of England
Mears Group, in the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Clearsprings Ready Homes, in the South and Wales (later parliamentary answers also refer to London and the South East)

A written answer in April 2025 also named Corporate Travel Management as providing some asylum accommodation services.

Local councils do not decide these placements. Wigan Council has put it plainly: it "has no powers or say in the number or location of these Serco properties." Portsmouth City Council says accommodation in the city "is commissioned by the Home Office and managed by companies on its behalf."

Home Office policy is that accommodation is offered on a "no choice basis", though the same policy allows caseworkers to consider exceptions, for example on health or family grounds.

This matters most in the North of England. Official statistics for 30 June 2026 show the North East and the North West had the highest rates of supported people, at 26 and 24 per 10,000 residents.

So what? If a house in your area is used as dispersal accommodation, it is almost certainly a Home Office contractor arrangement, not a council placement.

Official figures

The latest Home Office immigration statistics, published on 27 August 2026, are for 30 June 2026. The next release is due on 26 November 2026.

As at 30 June 2026, 93,293 people were in receipt of asylum support. Of those:

16,021 (17%) were in hotel accommodation, down from 32,041 as at 30 June 2025
73,068 (78%) were in non-hotel accommodation, "such as dispersal"
4,204 (5%) were on subsistence support only

Those two larger housing figures are not the same thing. In the official Asy_D09 tables, 69,038 people were in dispersal accommodation. The 73,068 figure is all non-hotel accommodation, which also includes initial accommodation and other contingency sites.

The government has committed to "exiting all asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament."

So what? Hotel use has fallen on the official figures, and most supported people are now in non-hotel accommodation. A large share of that is dispersal housing, which is where ordinary HMOs can come into the picture.

Planning permission and HMO licensing are different things

This is the same distinction we set out in our Article 4 directions and HMOs guide.

Planning controls the use of a building. An Article 4 direction can withdraw permitted development rights that would otherwise allow a change from a dwellinghouse (use class C3) to a small HMO (use class C4).
HMO licensing, under Part 2 of the Housing Act 2004, controls how a rented HMO is managed and whether it is suitable for the number of occupants.

You can need one, both, or neither. A four-person house share in an Article 4 area might need planning permission but no mandatory licence. A five-person share outside an Article 4 area might need a licence but no planning permission.

Mandatory licensing in England generally applies to HMOs occupied by five or more people in two or more households. A council can also run an additional licensing scheme for smaller HMOs, or a selective licensing scheme for privately rented homes in a designated area.

So what? Always treat planning and licensing as two separate checks. One answer does not settle the other.

Do Article 4 directions and HMO licences apply?

As we read the law as of 13 November 2026, there is no special exemption in force that takes privately owned houses leased to Home Office contractors outside HMO licensing or an Article 4 direction. Schedule 14 to the Housing Act 2004 lists buildings that are not HMOs for licensing purposes. It covers, for example, buildings managed or controlled by a local housing authority or a registered provider of social housing. It does not name the Home Office or AASC contractors.

Large former military sites can use a different planning route, such as an Urgent Crown Development application or a Special Development Order, decided by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government rather than the local planning authority. As we read it, that route does not mean an ordinary rented house is exempt from an Article 4 direction or from HMO licensing.

Safety duties that apply to HMOs, including the Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006, and council powers under Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004, are separate from the licensing question.

This is general information, not legal advice. The facts of a particular building can differ. Landlords and agents should take legal advice on their own case.

So what? Unless another exemption clearly applies to that building, the starting point, as we read it, is that the usual planning and licensing rules still apply.

The withdrawn 2023 exemption

In 2023 the government laid draft regulations, the Houses in Multiple Occupation (Asylum-Seeker Accommodation) (England) Regulations 2023. They would have temporarily taken some asylum accommodation out of Part 2 HMO licensing for two years.

A Commons committee considered the draft on 10 May 2023 and agreed it. The Lords also agreed a motion. But the instrument was never made. On 7 February 2024, the day a judicial review was due to be heard, the government withdrew the draft. It was not brought into force, so there was no exemption to expire later.

As of 13 November 2026, we have found no current government proposal and no 2026 statutory instrument to create a new exemption of this kind.

So what? Do not rely on a special licensing exemption. On the official record, that 2023 draft never became law, and we have not found a replacement.

Local examples

These examples show how the same national rules meet different local pictures. They are not a league table, and the figures are not directly comparable.

In Wigan, a council statement of 11 September 2025 said Serco "operates around 300 properties in the borough for asylum seeker housing, approximately 200 of which are HMOs." It also referred to "approximately 900" HMOs in the borough. If you divide those approximate figures, you get about 22%. That percentage is our calculation, not a figure the council itself published, and the snapshot is from September 2025. The council said that, from 31 August 2025, every new HMO in the borough needs planning permission under a borough-wide Article 4 direction.

In Havering, additional HMO licensing for homes rented to three or four unrelated people has applied in all wards since 18 March 2026, and selective licensing has applied in seven of 20 wards from the same date. The council consulted on a borough-wide Article 4 direction from 21 August 2026 to 16 October 2026. On the pages we opened, the outcome of that consultation had not been confirmed, and the council had said any direction would take effect one year after it was made. Do not assume it is already in force.

So what? The national rules are only the start. Your local Article 4 map and any additional or selective licensing scheme matter just as much.

What to check if you own or manage HMOs

This is a checklist of the usual rules, not an invitation to let a property for asylum accommodation, and not a comment on whether you should.

Check the planning position. Is the property in an Article 4 area? Would the occupation be a small HMO (use class C4) or a larger HMO, which may already need planning permission?
Check HMO licensing. Does mandatory licensing apply, because five or more people form more than one household? Is there an additional or selective licensing scheme in the area?
Check the safety duties that apply whether or not a licence is needed, including the management regulations for HMOs.
Take legal advice on your own case before you assume an exemption applies. As we read it, there is no special exemption in force for contractor-managed dispersal housing.

If you use property data in that process, ScanSan PAA can help with the facts of a building, not with the licence itself. It offers instant property lookup by address, postcode or UPRN, showing tenure, sale history, EPC and planning history, plus comparables-backed estimates (not formal valuations). Article 4 directions are shown as a map layer where we have coverage, which is not yet every council. ScanSan PAA does not cover HMO licensing. Decision support. Coverage varies. Not planning advice.

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What's still pending

A few official processes were still open or incomplete on 13 November 2026:

The next Home Office immigration statistics are due on 26 November 2026. The figures in this guide are for 30 June 2026.
Planning permission was granted on 13 November 2026, through the Urgent Crown Development route, for temporary use of MoD Bicester Site A as non-detained asylum accommodation for up to 1,256 single adult men aged 18 to 65. The Home Office factsheet is clear that this "does not mean a final decision has been made to use the site."
Use of the former airfield at Wethersfield is permitted under a Special Development Order until 10 April 2027. The Home Office has said it intends to extend that use, subject to appropriate planning permission. On the sources we opened, that extension had not been granted.
Fenland District Council has reported a Home Office plan to use Roman Court, Leverington, as 26-bed accommodation for women and babies. After a fire at the site, the council said on 22 October 2026 that police had indicated they were "investigating as an arson." On 2 November 2026 the council said the government had confirmed it intends to proceed.

So what? The figures and the large-site decisions can move. Re-check the official sources before you rely on a date or a number.

FAQ

Do asylum accommodation HMOs need an HMO licence? As we read the law as of 13 November 2026, there is no special exemption in force for privately owned houses used as Home Office dispersal accommodation. If the property meets the usual HMO licensing tests, the starting point is that a licence is needed. Landlords should take legal advice on their own case.

Does an Article 4 direction apply if a house is used as dispersal accommodation? We have not found a special planning exemption for ordinary rented houses used in this way. An Article 4 direction that withdraws permitted development rights would, as we read it, still need to be considered. Large former military sites can use a different planning route. That is not the same as an exemption for a typical house. Take legal advice on your own case.

Who provides asylum dispersal accommodation in England? The Home Office, through regional contractors. The current primes are Serco, Mears Group and Clearsprings Ready Homes. Councils do not decide these placements.

Was asylum accommodation exempted from HMO licensing? A 2023 draft would have created a temporary two-year exemption, but it was withdrawn on 7 February 2024 and was never made. As of 13 November 2026 we have found no current proposal to introduce one.

How many people are in hotels and in dispersal accommodation? As at 30 June 2026, official Home Office figures show 16,021 people in hotel accommodation, down from 32,041 a year earlier, and 69,038 in dispersal accommodation. A separate official figure, 73,068, covers all non-hotel accommodation, not dispersal alone. The next release is due on 26 November 2026.

What should I check if I own or manage an HMO? Check the planning position, including any Article 4 direction, and check whether mandatory, additional or selective licensing applies. Check the safety duties that apply in any event. Do not assume a special exemption applies. Take legal advice on your own case.

General information, not legal advice. Status as of 13 November 2026. Rules and figures can change, so check the official sources before you act and take legal advice about your own position.

Sources

All sources accessed 13 November 2026.