Dragonfly Hotel, Peterborough
The Dragonfly Hotel sits at Thorpe Meadows on the western edge of Peterborough, between Nene Park and the International Rowing Lakes. The 70 bedroom hotel began housing 146 single male asylum seekers under Home Office contract from November 2024, with both Peterborough MPs calling the placement wholly unsuitable and the Member for Peterborough later raising it in a House of Commons debate[1]Press[3]Press.
Capacity
146
residents at peak
Per night
£170
per resident
Annual
£9.1m
estimated
Background
The Dragonfly Hotel is a 70 bedroom commercial hotel at Thorpe Meadows on the western edge of Peterborough, set between Nene Park and the International Rowing Lakes. The site is dominated by sport and leisure use rather than residential infrastructure, with limited public transport, shops and services within walking distance[1]Press.
November 2024 Home Office placement
Peterborough City Council was notified by the Home Office on Thursday 14 November 2024 that 146 single male asylum seekers would be moved into the Dragonfly Hotel over the following three days. Core support services including food, financial support and medical assistance were to be delivered by Serco on the Home Office's behalf. The Home Office described the use as a short term placement but gave no fixed end date[1]Press.
Cross party MP response
Labour MPs Andrew Pakes (Peterborough) and Sam Carling (North West Cambridgeshire) issued a joint statement calling the Dragonfly Hotel wholly unsuitable for asylum accommodation, both for the city's residents and for the migrants placed there, and committed to push the Home Secretary for an early end to the placement[2]Press.
In May 2025 Mr Pakes returned to the issue in a House of Commons debate on immigration, telling Home Secretary Yvette Cooper that the lakeside Dragonfly Hotel was still being used as an asylum seekers' refuge and pressing for it to be brought back into commercial use as quickly as possible[3]Press.
Nene Park Trust statement
Nene Park Trust, the charity that manages the open space around Thorpe Meadows and the rowing lakes, issued a public statement on the Home Office's decision to use the neighbouring Dragonfly Hotel for asylum accommodation, setting out its position as a landowner hosting visitors directly adjacent to the site[4]Press.
Cost analysis
At the £170 per person per night Migration Observatory benchmark[5]and a peak occupancy of 146 residents, the Dragonfly Hotel implies headline taxpayer exposure of about £24,820 per night and roughly £9.1 million per year. That sits above the May 2025 NAO portfolio average of about £5.84 million per hotel per year[6]NAO.
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
Dragonfly Hotel
£170
benchmark
UK asylum hotel avg
£170
NAO
Peterborough budget hotel
£55
commercial
Hostel bed
£30
commercial
Timeline
Timeline
Pre-2024
Operates as a commercial 70 bedroom lakeside hotel at Thorpe Meadows
14 Nov 2024
Home Office notifies Peterborough City Council
Council told that 146 single male asylum seekers will be moved into the Dragonfly Hotel over the next three days under a Serco managed contract.
Nov 2024
Cross party MP opposition
Labour MPs Andrew Pakes and Sam Carling jointly call the Dragonfly placement wholly unsuitable and pledge to fight for an early end.
Nov 2024
Nene Park Trust statement
Neighbouring landowner publishes its position on the use of the adjacent Dragonfly Hotel for asylum accommodation.
May 2025
Raised in the House of Commons
Andrew Pakes MP raises the continued use of the Dragonfly Hotel during a Commons debate on immigration, pressing Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to bring it back into commercial use.
Sources
- 146 asylum seekers to be moved into Peterborough's lakeside Dragonfly Hotel — Peterborough Telegraph, Nov 2024
Peterborough Telegraph confirms the Home Office decision to accommodate 146 single male asylum seekers at the 70 bedroom Dragonfly Hotel in Thorpe Meadows, with the city council notified on 14 November 2024 and Serco delivering core support services on the Home Office's behalf.
- Peterborough MPs vow to fight to secure early end to use of Dragonfly Hotel as asylum seekers refuge — Peterborough Telegraph, Nov 2024
Labour Peterborough MPs Andrew Pakes and Sam Carling jointly state that the Dragonfly Hotel is wholly unsuitable for use as asylum accommodation, citing infrastructure gaps in the Thorpe Meadows lakeside area and committing to push the Home Secretary for an early end to the placement.
- WATCH: Peterborough MP urges Home Secretary to end Dragonfly Hotel use as asylum seekers refuge — Peterborough Telegraph, May 2025
Peterborough Telegraph reports MP Andrew Pakes raising the continued use of the Dragonfly Hotel in Thorpe Meadows during a House of Commons debate on immigration in May 2025, calling on Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to remember that the lakeside hotel is still being used as an asylum seekers refuge.
- Our statement on asylum seekers at the Dragonfly Hotel — Nene Park Trust, Nov 2024
Nene Park Trust public statement on the Home Office decision to use the Dragonfly Hotel in Thorpe Meadows, neighbouring the trust's landholdings and the International Rowing Lakes, for asylum seeker accommodation.
- 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.