Britannia Ashley Hotel, Hale

The Britannia Ashley Hotel is a long-established Trafford property on Ashley Road in Hale, a village best known for its high property prices and Altrincham Grammar School. The site forms part of the Britannia chain, the largest single supplier of asylum hotels in the country during the 2022 to 2025 contingency period.

On 1 February 2023 Trafford Council issued a public statement confirming it had been advised that the Britannia Ashley Hotel in Hale would be used by the Home Office to accommodate asylum seekers. The council made clear that the placement was a Home Office decision over which the local authority had no control, and asked residents and partner agencies to extend the same welcome that the borough had given to asylum seekers in previous years^[2]Council.

In October 2025 Altrincham Today reported that a convicted paedophile on the run from German authorities had been arrested at the Britannia Ashley Hotel after immigration authorities identified him there. The piece confirmed that the hotel had been housing asylum seekers since February 2023 and noted the wider concerns being raised by Hale residents about safeguarding in a village setting^[3]Press.

On 15 April 2026 Altrincham Today published the breaking news that the Britannia Ashley Hotel in Hale would stop housing asylum seekers within three months, after the Home Office informed Trafford Council of the decision. Altrincham and Sale West MP Connor Rand confirmed the announcement and said it left the Cresta Court Hotel in Altrincham town centre, which has been closed to the public since October 2024 and is believed to house up to 300 asylum seekers, as the remaining Trafford site under the Home Office contract^[1]Press.

At the £170 per person per night Migration Observatory benchmark^[4], an approximately 100-room Britannia hotel run at full asylum occupancy implies headline taxpayer exposure of about £17,000 per night and roughly £6.2 million per year. The May 2025 NAO contract review put the average per hotel run rate across the wider portfolio at about £5.84 million per year^[5]NAO, so the Ashley Britannia sits broadly in line with the national average.