Bruce Hotel, East Kilbride

The Bruce Hotel was designed by Walter Underwood and Partners and built between 1968 and 1969 in a distinctive brutalist style. It was conceived as a civic anchor for Scotland new town of East Kilbride, sitting at the south side of the EK Shopping Centre and the central bus station. For most of its commercial life it was a flagship venue for South Lanarkshire business events and weddings.

The Ferret confirms the Bruce Hotel as one of at least 15 asylum hotels in use across Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen, along with towns from Falkirk to Paisley and East Kilbride, accommodating approximately 1,500 people in total across Scotland. Mears Group is the Home Office contracted provider in Scotland and is responsible for placing residents at the Bruce^[2]Press.

The Community Impact reports that around 60 individuals are currently living at the Bruce, that hotel-based asylum accommodation costs about £145 per person per night, and that East Kilbride MP Dr Lisa Cameron said she had been shut out of any discussions and described the hotel as unsuitable for asylum housing^[1]Press.

In a separate investigation, The Ferret revealed that an activist had posed as a Home Office inspector in order to gain access to the Bruce Hotel and film inside, naming the East Kilbride hotel directly in its reporting on hostile reconnaissance against Scottish asylum sites^[3]Press.

At the £145 per person per day Sky News figure for hotel-based asylum accommodation in 2024 and 2025, and around 60 residents, the Bruce Hotel running cost works out at about £8,700 per night and roughly £3.2 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 Bruce sits below the national average given its smaller resident headcount.

The £170 Migration Observatory benchmark^[4] is the all-in UK 2024 to 2025 average. Sky News reported a slightly lower £145 per day figure that excludes some overheads.