Holiday Inn Express Bridgwater (M5 J24)
The Holiday Inn Express at Market Way, North Petherton, sits at Junction 24 of the M5 just south of Bridgwater in Somerset. It has been used by the Home Office as asylum accommodation under the Clearsprings Ready Homes contract for the South West. In April 2026 Bridgwater MP Ashley Fox said the Home Office had confirmed that use of the hotel would end by the end of July 2026[1]GOV.UK.
Background
The Holiday Inn Express Bridgwater M5, Jct. 24 is a modern budget hotel at Market Way, North Petherton, immediately south of Bridgwater. Home Office asylum accommodation across the South West is contracted to Clearsprings Ready Homes; the local council does not hold or publish hotel-level occupancy data[2]GOV.UK.
Asylum use
The hotel was taken into Home Office contingency asylum use as part of the wider use of Somerset hotels for asylum accommodation. The precise start date and the number of residents housed at the site have not been published; the county-level reporting does not break figures down by individual hotel[2]GOV.UK.
The mid-2026 wind-down
On 20 April 2026, Bridgwater MP Ashley Fox welcomed Home Office confirmation that the North Petherton Holiday Inn Express would cease to be used for asylum accommodation by the end of July 2026, with residents moved elsewhere as part of the national wind-down of asylum hotels[1]GOV.UK.
Cost analysis
No resident number and no site-specific cost figure has been published for this hotel, so no cost is estimated for it here. The Migration Observatory's £170 per person per night is an average across asylum hotels[4], and applying it needs a headcount that no source gives for this site. For context, 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, a national average and not a figure 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
Somerset budget hotel
£70
commercial
Hostel bed
£30
commercial
Timeline
Timeline
Pre-use
Operates as a commercial M5 Junction 24 Holiday Inn Express at North Petherton
Date not confirmed
Taken into Home Office asylum use
Used for contingency asylum accommodation (Clearsprings, South West). Public sources do not confirm the start date.
20 Apr 2026
Closure confirmed by Home Office
Bridgwater MP Ashley Fox welcomes Home Office confirmation that asylum use will end by the end of July 2026.
End of Jul 2026
Announced deadline for asylum use to end
The end date is the announced deadline. The day residents left is not published, and the Home Office list of 12 August 2026 gives no exit dates.
12 Aug 2026
Named among thirteen hotels exited
The Home Office lists Holiday Inn, Bridgwater among thirteen asylum hotels exited and returned to local communities.
Sources
- Ashley Fox MP welcomes end of North Petherton asylum hotel use · Ashley Fox MP, Apr 2026
Bridgwater MP Ashley Fox welcomes Home Office confirmation that the Holiday Inn Express at North Petherton (M5 Junction 24), just south of Bridgwater, will cease use as asylum accommodation by the end of July 2026.
- Understanding asylum support in Somerset · Somerset Council, 2026
Somerset Council states that Home Office asylum accommodation across the South West is managed by Clearsprings Ready Homes, and that the council holds no per-hotel occupancy data.
- Thirteen asylum hotels exited and returned to local communities · Home Office / GOV.UK, 12 August 2026
Names 13 asylum hotels exited and returned to local communities: Ramada Jarvis Hotel, Loughborough; Chimney House Hotel, Sandbach; Britannia Ashley Hotel, Hale; Gold Thorn Hotel, Wolverhampton; Grand Metropole Hotel, Blackpool; Nottingham Hotel, Nottingham; Grosvenor Hotel, Stratford-upon-Avon; Staycity Apartments Deptford Bridge, Lewisham; Needham House, Hitchin; Holiday Inn, Bridgwater; Holiday Inn Express, Dunstable; Dubrovnik Hotel, Bradford; and Best Western Brook Hotel, Norwich.
- 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.