Epping's "significant" High Court victory over the migrant-housing Bell Hotel will "open the floodgates" for other local councils, GB News's Home and Security Editor Mark White has claimed.

Speaking to GB News, Mark warned the Labour Government that the win could trigger a "raft of new appeals" regarding other migrant hotels across the country.

Discussing Epping's court victory on GB News, council leader Chris Whitbread urged other local authorities to "look at their own planning rules" and take action.

Mark White has warned that Epping's High Court victory will 'open the floodgates' for appeals from UK councils with asylum hotels

Analysing Epping's legal victory, Mark explained: "There's no doubt it's a significant judgment because it could potentially open the floodgates to a raft of new appeals by various local authorities across the country, who are very unhappy at the fact that they've had no real say in the requisition of these hotels in their local authority area for use by asylum seekers.

"It takes these hotels out of community use, not just for weeks and months, but often years at a time. And in certain communities, you might only have one or two hotels that are a vital resource for these communities, for people to hold weddings and other functions for tourists visiting the area to be accommodated, and that's just not open to them."

Pointing out that Epping secured victory through the "planning consent" issue, Mark added: "That's why they're using the issue of planning consent.

"The fact that you have through the Home Office contractors, a hotel being changed in terms of its usage from a hotel accommodating business people and tourists to effectively being used as a hostel, they say it should have required an application to the planning board, which hasn't happened in the vast majority of cases."

Epping Forest Council Leader Chris Whitbread urged other councils to take legal action against hotels in their area | GB NEWS

Highlighting the impact of the ruling on other local communities, Mark told GB News: "Clearly, the judgment yesterday shows it is possible to argue that point of planning, and that's given, I think, a lot of hope to local authorities seeing real issues in their areas.

"And we know Nigel Farage has said overnight that the ten local authorities that Reform UK control are looking as a matter of urgency at asylum seeker hotels in their area with a view to mounting similar legal challenges."

Asked by host Charlie Peters if the Epping victory will push the Labour Government to "look at alternative options" for housing asylum seekers, Mark suggested that there could be more use of "dispersal accommodation" such as HMOs.

Mark said: "There are growing calls now for the Government to consider the likes of larger, either purpose built or specially adapted camps, in the same way that we did with the Nightingale hospitals. Camps can spring up quite quickly with these prefabricated units that can house migrants in conditions that are still perfectly suitable.

Mark told GB News that using HMO's could result in migrant dispersal to 'even more communities'

"Not only would that then have the desired effect of taking migrants out of town centres or streets near you, but also because the conditions would be a bit more austere, that could act as a disincentive to those coming across the Channel. But at the moment, it doesn't seem that the Government is seriously considering that as an option."

He added: "They are, it seems, focused on going down the road of trying dispersal accommodation out in the community. And I think actually that for many people will be an even more unpalatable option than asylum hotels, as controversial as they undoubtedly are."

Warning of the "deeply alarming" rise in migrants being housed in HMOs, Mark concluded: "The fact that you can still have significant numbers of asylum seekers, young men, usually a dozen or more, in a house of multiple occupation, right in the heart of a community, is something I think that deeply alarms many people right across the country.

"And because it's a dispersal rather than 210 asylum hotels in certain communities, you're talking about dispersal to many, many more communities."