Littleport man says house next door being turned into asylum seeker HMO near school

A resident of Littleport, Cambridgeshire, has told GB News that a house next door to his home, close to a primary school, is being converted into a house in multiple occupation (HMO) for asylum seekers. The man, identified only as Steve, said the property was sold for £310,000 and is now being fitted with fire doors and other modifications to accommodate five people on a five to seven year contract.

Steve said he became suspicious when builders began installing fire doors. When he challenged one of the workers, he was told the property would be an HMO for asylum seekers. He said the house had been procured by Serco, or a landlord leasing to Serco, and that there had been no consultation with neighbours. "There was no consultation process. They didn't speak to anyone," he said. "The first we knew about it was when they were ripping everything out and throwing it into a skip."

The property is on a quiet residential street, close to a school used by hundreds of children. Steve said he felt "very, very angry and very, very worried" about the potential risk to children and the lack of any community input. He also noted that the house had originally been listed at £320,000 and had sat on the market before selling for £310,000.

The Home Office responded to the report by saying: "The safety of local communities is central to our immigration reforms which is why asylum seekers are routinely screened against policing, criminality and immigration databases before they're permitted to move into sites." Serco declined to comment, but a spokesman clarified that the Home Office decides where people are placed.

The story comes amid a wider political debate about the dispersal of asylum seekers across the UK. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said that it is unfair for only the poorest communities to receive asylum seekers, and has suggested that more affluent areas should also take a share, even if it costs more. Critics have accused him of engaging in class warfare, while supporters argue that the burden should be shared fairly.

In a separate but related development, residents of Piddington in Oxfordshire are protesting against plans to house more than 1,000 asylum seekers at a former military base near their village. Parish council chairman Tim McNally said the proposal was "entirely disproportionate" and that the process had bypassed public consultation. He cited failures at other sites, including RAF Scampton and Napier Barracks, as evidence that large-scale accommodation does not work.

The Littleport case highlights the concerns of many communities about the placement of asylum accommodation without prior notice. Steve said he and his neighbours were left to discover the plans by accident, and that the lack of transparency had caused widespread anxiety. He said he would be keeping in touch with GB News to update on how the situation develops.