Asylum seekers are set to be housed on a barge or ferry on the Mersey as the Home Office seeks to move migrants out of hotels.

Ministers have identified locations with sufficient capacity to house 10,000 migrants including Wirral docks on the Mersey which could house up to 1,800 asylum seekers in a ferry or barge.

Former military sites at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and RAF Wethersfield in Essex, a barge for up to 500 migrants at Portland port in Dorset and a former prison in Bexhill have already been announced as sites for nearly 6,000 migrants.

Home Office sources denied suggestions that there was a target of 10 former ferries, cruise ships or barges to house asylum seekers but acknowledged it was in talks to contract vessels for migrants to reduce the £7 million a day cost of housing 51,000 migrants in hotels.

A final agreement has yet to be reached with Peel Ports which is responsible for Liverpool and Mersey docks but negotiations are thought to be close to completion. The talks were first revealed by The Telegraph last month.

Peel Ports operates six UK ports including the harbour and docks along the Mersey in Liverpool, Wirral and Sefton. The company provided a berth for a cruise ship accommodating Ukrainian refugees in Glasgow last year in a deal with the Scottish Government.

A spokesman for Peel Ports said: “We have provided a berth for a vessel accommodating refugees in Glasgow for the last year with the willing participation of the local authority and their collaboration with the vessel’s management team and the port operations.

“What we have learned is that this model can only work with the full engagement and support of the local authority and other relevant stakeholders.”

Local politicians, however, have condemned the proposal, pointing to a lack of infrastructure and describing the plans as a “floating prison”.

The Home Office has so far only announced a barge, Bibby Stockholm, will be berthed in Portland port from early June.

The first group of migrants, expected to be single men nearing the end of their asylum-processing claims, are expected to board later that month, with more people arriving over the summer.