Grange Hotel, Bracknell

ARAP and ACRS are separate Ministry of Defence and Home Office programmes for Afghan nationals who worked alongside or were eligible for British protection following the 2021 withdrawal. Residents arrive in the UK with leave to remain already granted, so they are not asylum seekers and the cost is not part of the Home Office asylum accommodation contract portfolio. The Grange page is included on the tracker for completeness because the CSV feed lists it as a hotel-style migrant accommodation site, but its policy framing is distinct^[5]GOV.UK.

The Grange ceased trading as a public hotel in December 2022. Bracknell News and B Radio confirm the property was taken on by the Ministry of Defence as transition accommodation for Afghan families resettled through ARAP and ACRS. Residents are able to stay for up to nine months while they find longer-term private accommodation, and the building retains its Class C1 hotel planning use rather than requiring a change of use^[1]Press.

In August 2025 a High Court injunction at the Bell Hotel in Epping Forest restricted asylum-seeker placement at that property and prompted similar requests elsewhere. Bracknell Forest Council confirmed no change at the Grange because its residents are not asylum seekers, the building is operating within its existing C1 hotel use class, and the MoD scheme sits outside the Home Office asylum accommodation framework^[2]Press^[3]GOV.UK.

In late 2025 Bracknell News reported Bracknell Forest Council was reimbursed roughly £74,000 by central government for translation services provided to Afghan families housed at the Grange. The figure illustrates that ARAP and ACRS resettlement still imposes meaningful public-service overhead on local authorities, even though the cost framing differs from Home Office asylum dispersal hotels^[4]Press.