Plymouth asylum seekers call blasted as "scaremongering"Cllr Ricketts claimed pilot scheme would “take housing from Plymouth people to cover national failure”View Image Cllr Steve Ricketts speaking at Plymouth City Council. (Image: Alison Stephenson)A call to Plymouth City Council to send a clear message to government that the authority will not take part in any future projects to build houses for asylum seekers has been rejected and labelled as “scaremongering”. ‌The government aims to reduce reliance on hotels by placing asylum seekers into newly built or refurbished council homes and around 200 councils have shown interest in getting involved. At the end of last year there were around 30,000 asylum seekers living in 198 hotels in the UK. The pilot project will see councils given incentives to buy up properties or refurbish derelict buildings to house asylum seekers awaiting decisions.