Northwood Court, Broadstairs

Northwood Court is a large former Canterbury Christ Church University student accommodation block on Millennium Way in Broadstairs, Thanet. The CCCU Broadstairs campus closed in 2018 and the building was sold to private owners Nelson College London, who completed the purchase of the Allen and Carey Buildings and Northwood Court student accommodation in May 2022^[1]Press.

In November 2022 Nelson College London leased the Northwood Court premises to Clearsprings Ready Homes, the Home Office contractor running the Southern asylum accommodation region. Some occupants were moved into the premises before the lease was revoked, with reporting noting that certain conditions of the lease had not been met. The asylum residents were then removed from the site^[1]Press.

In November 2023 Kent County Council submitted plans to use Northwood Court as a temporary accommodation centre for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. After significant community opposition the proposal was withdrawn in August 2024^[3]Press.

KentOnline confirmed that Kent County Council formally axed the bid after community opposition, noting that Clearsprings had also previously attempted to use the site under a Home Office contract before that lease was revoked^[2]Press.

Northwood Court was never operated as a settled Home Office asylum site, so there is no settled per night cost figure to cite. The cost story here is abortive: contractor and council spending on the failed Clearsprings lease and the subsequent KCC children's centre bid, both of which ended without the site entering long-term Home Office use.

For context, the Migration Observatory £170 per person per night benchmark^[4]would have implied roughly £5.2 million per year of headline taxpayer exposure if the proposed 84 bed configuration had ever been put into full Home Office use. 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.