Mercure Leeds Parkway, Otley Road

The Mercure Leeds Parkway sits on Otley Road on the northern edge of Leeds, between the suburbs of Adel and Bramhope. It is a three star Accor branded hotel of around 110 rooms, operated commercially before the Home Office contract took it out of public booking. The Yorkshire and Humber asylum accommodation contract is held by Mears Group, which the Leeds Migration Partnership welcome pack confirms as the regional accommodation provider for asylum seekers in Leeds, including those housed in city contingency hotels^[4]Press.

Press confirmation that the Mercure Leeds Parkway on Otley Road has been in active asylum use is reinforced by an April 2023 Yorkshire Evening Post court report, which named the Mercure Hotel on Otley Road as the address of an asylum seeker resident at Leeds Crown Court for online communications offences against a fictitious 13 year old, with the campaign starting in September 2022^[2]Press.

In a councillor briefing reproducing the Leeds City Council position, Adel and Wharfedale ward councillor Cllr Barry Anderson confirmed the Home Office had informed the council that, due to an urgent need for further asylum contingency accommodation, it had identified the Mercure Leeds Parkway, Otley Road, Leeds LS16 8AG and planned to start using the hotel immediately. The briefing recorded that Mears was supporting service users in the hotel^[1]Council.

The same statement noted that Leeds City Council was not consulted on Home Office decisions about which hotels are used in the city and was unable to overturn those decisions. The council formally raised its concerns and disappointment with the decision being taken without proper consultation, and requested an urgent meeting with the Home Office^[1]Council.

The 100% Digital Leeds programme, run within Leeds City Council, partnered with the Horsforth Chaplaincy Project in 2024 to deliver fifty smartphones, data SIM cards and a £5,000 INCLUDE+ research grant to asylum seeking men resident at the Mercure Leeds Parkway. The programme report describes the hotel as a continuing asylum accommodation site through 2024 and 2025, and notes that the peripheral north Leeds location leaves residents isolated from city centre services^[3]Council.

Press and council records taken together place the start of asylum use at the hotel in late summer 2022, with continuing operations confirmed by the 2024 council programme. Mears Group remains the named operator under the Yorkshire and Humber regional contract.

At the £170 per person per night Migration Observatory benchmark^[5], a 110 room hotel run at full asylum occupancy implies headline taxpayer exposure of about £18,700 per night and roughly £6.8 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^[6]NAO.