Mercure York Fairfield Manor, Skelton

The structural feature that distinguishes this hotel from the wider 2020 to 2021 wave of contingency hotels is that the receiving local authority chose to publish a formal Lessons Learnt review. The annex sits in the City of York Council democracy archive and is referenced in subsequent local media coverage^[1]Council^[2]Press.

The review pulled together what York's social housing, public health and council teams had observed in real time as the Mercure was used to house 90 male asylum seekers, and then proposed concrete changes to security, internet provision and donation handling for any future use.

The Mercure York Fairfield Manor sits on the A19 at Skelton, just outside the York ring road. From June 2020 the hotel was withdrawn from public booking and used as Home Office contingency accommodation under the Mears Group North East, Yorkshire and Humber regional contract, with around 90 single adult male residents at peak during the early pandemic period.

City of York Council was not the contracting authority but took on a coordinating role around the welfare of residents, donations from local people, and council-led English lessons and healthcare access. The site then closed to asylum use in June 2021, with the hotel reverting to commercial trading.

The review documents that anti-immigration protesters entered the hotel and filmed residents shortly after their arrival, and that the initial security measures put in place by the contractor were not adequate. Security was upgraded after the incident^[1]Council^[2]Press.

The annex flagged weak hotel wifi as a material mental-health concern, recording that the lack of internet connection was having a negative impact on residents' wellbeing because the connection was crucial to allow them to learn and to communicate with friends and family outside the hotel. Mears Group was named as the operator that should have done more to remedy the wifi issue.

The review also recorded confusion and complaints from residents over Mears confiscation of donated items provided by York residents. On the positive side, it highlighted council-coordinated English lessons, low Covid-19 rates among the men, and active community donation drives.

At the £170 per person per night Migration Observatory benchmark^[3], 90 residents over the 12 month asylum-use period implies headline taxpayer exposure of about £15,300 per night and roughly £5.6 million across the contract. The May 2025 NAO contract review put the average per hotel run rate across the wider portfolio at about £5.84 million per year^[4]NAO.