After years of controversy regarding poor conditions, the site will no longer house asylum seekers from September

Napier barracks, one of the first mass accommodation sites opened to house asylum seekers, is to be closed after years of controversy about conditions there, including a mass Covid outbreak, decrepit facilities and far-right protests.

The news is buried in a Home Office document uploaded to parliament’s cross-party home affairs committee on Tuesday as part of an investigation into the provision of asylum accommodation. In the document the Home Office states: “The Home Office intend to occupy and deliver services at Napier until September 2025, at which point the site will be handed back to the Ministry of Defence.”