Fownes Hotel, Worcester

The Fownes Hotel sits in the former Fownes Glove Factory on Clare Street, Diglis, a Grade II listed Victorian industrial building converted into a hotel in the 1980s. From August 2023 the Worcester Observer reported that the Home Office had begun using the hotel for asylum accommodation without prior public notification, prompting criticism from Worcester councillors over the secrecy of the arrangement^[2]Press.

A Cotswold Journal investigation found that asylum seekers were being housed unlawfully at the Fownes Hotel because Worcester City Council had not granted the change of use from hotel (use class C1) to hostel (sui generis) that the council considered necessary. A November 2022 council report had already recorded 115 people staying at the hotel^[1]Press.

In its public statement, Worcester City Council said it had been keeping a watching brief on activities at the Fownes Hotel and had given due consideration to where public interest lay and whether there had been any adverse impact on the amenity of the site or the surrounding area, declining to pursue enforcement^[3]GOV.UK.

At the £170 per person per night Migration Observatory benchmark^[4], a 115 person headcount at the Fownes implies headline taxpayer exposure of about £19,550 per night and roughly £7.1 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.