The Home Office has denied that a "floating hotel" docked at Tilbury, Essex, is to be used to house asylum seekers.
The denial followed claims by Thurrock council that it knew of a proposal to accommodate asylum seekers on the ship.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: "We are always looking at different ways of providing accommodation and detention space. There are no plans as yet to use the ship for asylum seekers."

The ship, called the Bibby Progress, is similar to those used to accommodate asylum seekers in the Netherlands and Germany.

A spokesman for Bibby Line Group, the company that owns the ship, said the ship was moved from Italy because the company believed there was a need for such accommodation in Britain.

But he denied it was in Tilbury for any reason other than to be refurbished. "There is no agreement in place," he said.

Source

Housing Today