Chichester Park Hotel
The Chichester Park Hotel sits on Madgwick Lane in Westhampnett, on the eastern edge of Chichester in West Sussex. The Sussex Express reported in October 2023 that it had closed to the public the previous month after the Home Office announced plans to use it as contingency accommodation for people seeking asylum[2]Press. The site has been the focus of recurring pro-asylum and anti-asylum rallies through 2023 to 2025, and the closure of the hotel to commercial bookings has displaced dozens of weddings[1]Press. The newest source that names the hotel, of September 2025, reports protesters' concern at the cost of housing asylum seekers there[4]Press.
Last confirmed in asylum use: September 2025 (Sussex Express, reporting protesters' concern)[4]
Taxpayer cost not established
No resident number has been published for this site by the Home Office, the local authority or the press, so we do not estimate a cost for it. Our per-site figures are headcount × nightly rate × days in use, and we would rather show nothing than a number we cannot source.
- Last confirmed in asylum use
- September 2025 (Sussex Express, reporting protesters' concern)
- Benchmark rate
- £170/person/night
The dates below are sourced; the resident count is not. Rather than infer one from the building's room count we leave the cost blank, because a hotel's bed-stock is not evidence of how many people the Home Office placed in it.
Background
The Chichester Park Hotel is a country-style hotel on Madgwick Lane, Westhampnett, just north of the A27 Chichester bypass. West Sussex County Council and Chichester District Council confirmed in autumn 2023 that the property was being considered as contingency accommodation for between 150 and 300 asylum seekers[1]Press.
The decision to close the hotel to paying guests displaced a long list of pre-booked commercial events, including dozens of weddings. Commercial closures of this kind have become a recurring local-press theme around asylum hotels in the South East, where wedding-venue and conference trade is part of the year-round business model.
Rallies and counter-rallies, 2023 to 2025
Sussex Express reporting describes a sustained pattern of weekend rallies outside the hotel beginning in autumn 2023, when residents and locals first organised against the proposed asylum use. Counter- rallies were attended by Stand Up to Racism Portsmouth, members of local trade unions, and the Bognor Regis and Littlehampton Labour Party[1]Press.
The pattern continued through 2025. In September that year the Sussex Express reported two significant rallies held in Chichester, one of them by hotel protesters who said they were concerned at the huge cost to taxpayers of housing asylum seekers at Chichester Park Hotel[4]Press. Photo coverage of related August and September 2025 protests records weekend gatherings outside the site that were largely peaceful but tightly stewarded by Sussex Police[3]Press.
Cost analysis
No resident number has been published for the Chichester Park Hotel, so no nightly or annual cost is estimated for it here. The Migration Observatory's £170 per person per night is an average across asylum hotels[5], and the May 2025 NAO contract review put the average per-hotel run rate across the wider portfolio at about £5.84 million per year[6]NAO. Both are national figures and not figures for this hotel.
Per-person per-day cost stack (benchmark)
£170- Hotel rate (room + three meals)£10059%
- Weekly cash allowance£74%
- Legal aid & casework£127%
- NHS / interpreter / utilities£1911%
- Contractor / security overhead£3219%
Cost in context
UK asylum hotel avg
£170
NAO
Chichester budget hotel
£75
commercial
Hostel bed
£30
commercial
Timeline
Timeline
Pre-2023
Operates as a commercial country-style hotel and wedding venue on Madgwick Lane
Sep 2023
Hotel closes to the public
The Sussex Express reports that the hotel closed after the Home Office announced plans to use it as contingency accommodation for people seeking asylum.
2023 to 2024
Recurring weekend rallies
Pro and anti-asylum gatherings outside the hotel; counter-rallies organised by Stand Up to Racism Portsmouth and others.
2025
Photo-coverage rallies continue
Sussex Express photo essays document weekend protests at the site through August and September.
Sep 2025
Two significant rallies in Chichester
Hotel protesters say they are concerned at the cost to taxpayers of housing asylum seekers at the hotel. This is the newest source that names it.
After Sep 2025
No later report
We have found no source since September 2025 that names the hotel or gives its current status.
Sources
- Chichester Park Hotel: Protests and counter-protests continue amid fears city hotel could be used to house asylum seekers · Sussex Express, Sep 2023
Reports rival protests and counter-protests outside the Chichester Park Hotel on Madgwick Lane in autumn 2023, after West Sussex County Council and Chichester District Council confirmed the property was being considered as contingency asylum accommodation for between 150 and 300 people.
- Chichester Park Hotel: faith and community groups thanked for offers of help to asylum seekers · Sussex Express, 11 Oct 2023
Reports that the Chichester Park Hotel closed the previous month after the Home Office announced plans to use it as "contingency accommodation for people seeking asylum". It gives no resident number.
- Migrant hotel protest takes place in Chichester - photos · Sussex Express, 2025
Photo coverage of a 2025 anti-migrant-hotel protest outside the Chichester Park Hotel, part of a continuing pattern of weekend rallies at the site.
- Two significant rallies held in Chichester · Sussex Express, 24 Sep 2025
Reports two significant rallies held in Chichester in September 2025. It says the hotel protesters are concerned at the huge cost to taxpayers of housing asylum seekers at Chichester Park Hotel: that is the protesters' stated concern, reported by the paper, not a Home Office statement. It gives no resident number.
- Asylum accommodation in the UK · Migration Observatory, University of Oxford, Aug 2025
£170 per person per day in hotels (2024/25 average); used for per-hotel estimates and food/utilities breakdowns.
- The Home Office's asylum accommodation contracts · National Audit Office, May 2025
222 hotels in use; £1.296 billion annual (2024/25); per-hotel approximately £5.84 million.