Novotel Stevenage, Knebworth Park
The Novotel Stevenage sits at the entrance to Knebworth Park, just off junction 7 of the A1(M). The four-star hotel was closed to the paying public from September 2022 to provide asylum accommodation under a Home Office contract, with rooms paid for by Clearsprings Ready Homes. In summer 2025 Stevenage Borough Council notified owner Fairview Hotels (Knebworth) Ltd of an intended planning enforcement notice on the grounds that the hotel had effectively become a hostel[1]Press[2]Press.
Last confirmed in asylum use: August 2025 (The Comet)[7]
Capacity
183
people (Stevenage Borough Council, December 2022; a snapshot, not a peak)
Background
The Novotel Stevenage is set in the grounds of Knebworth House, off the A1(M) at junction 7. The site is owned by Fairview Hotels (Knebworth) Ltd, part of the same Fairview Hotels portfolio that owns the Novotel Ipswich. From September 2022 the hotel was closed to the paying public to provide asylum accommodation under a Home Office contract administered through Clearsprings Ready Homes[1]Press.
Stevenage has been one of the longer running asylum hotel sites outside London, with the Novotel and the Ibis Stevenage both used for dispersal. The Comet reported in August 2025 that 322 asylum seekers were being accommodated across Stevenage, a figure that names the Novotel and the Ibis but does not split between them[9]Press. Stevenage Borough Council's Executive record of 7 December 2022 says 183 asylum seekers had by then been placed by the Home Office in the Novotel[8]Council. That is a single snapshot, not a peak or a current count.
The 2025 planning enforcement push
In June 2025 a leaked letter showed Labour run Stevenage Borough Council had written to Fairview Hotels (Knebworth) Ltd warning that it intended to issue a planning enforcement notice unless the Novotel stopped being used to accommodate asylum seekers. Council planning officers took the view that the use amounted to a hostel, and that the building only had permission to operate as a hotel[2]Press.
Following the August 2025 High Court ruling in favour of Epping Forest District Council in the Bell Hotel case, Stevenage formally opened an active investigation into both the Novotel and the Ibis, described in national coverage as part of a wider wave of Labour councils weighing planning law action against asylum hotels in their districts[3]Press[4]Press.
Cost analysis
The only count for the Novotel on its own is the council's snapshot of 183 people in December 2022. It is not a current count and is not applied to the years since, so no nightly or annual cost is estimated here. The Migration Observatory benchmark is £170 per person per night[5]. 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.
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
Stevenage budget hotel
£60
commercial
Hostel bed
£30
commercial
Timeline
Timeline
Pre-2022
Operates as a commercial four-star Novotel at Knebworth Park
Sep 2022
Closed to paying guests for asylum use
Home Office takes the hotel into asylum accommodation under a Clearsprings contract.
7 Dec 2022
Council record: 183 asylum seekers already placed at the Novotel
Stevenage Borough Council Executive record. A single snapshot, and the last figure for the Novotel alone.
Jun 2025
Council letter to owner
Stevenage Borough Council writes to Fairview Hotels (Knebworth) Ltd warning of intended planning enforcement action.
Aug 2025
Active investigation
Following the Epping Bell Hotel ruling, Stevenage formally opens a planning investigation into the Novotel and the Ibis. The Comet reports 322 asylum seekers across Stevenage.
Sources
- Stevenage hotel closed to accommodate asylum seekers · The Comet, Sep 2022
Local newspaper report confirming that the Novotel in Stevenage, off junction 7 of the A1(M), was closed to the paying public from September 2022 in order to provide accommodation exclusively to asylum seekers under a Home Office contract.
- Novotel in Stevenage told to stop housing asylum seekers · The Comet, Aug 2025
The Comet reports that Stevenage Borough Council has told Fairview Hotels (Knebworth) Ltd, the owner of the Novotel near junction 7 of the A1(M), that it intends to issue a planning enforcement notice unless the hotel stops being used to accommodate asylum seekers, on the basis that the use amounts to a hostel and is a breach of planning control.
- Council ‘actively investigating’ alleged planning breaches at asylum seeker hotels in Hertfordshire · Harrow Online, Aug 2025
Reports that Stevenage Borough Council is actively investigating alleged planning breaches at the Novotel and Ibis hotels in the town following the Epping High Court ruling, with Clearsprings Ready Homes named as the contractor paying for the rooms.
- Asylum hotels: Another Labour council weighs options for planning law action · LabourList, Aug 2025
Coverage of the political context for Stevenage Borough Council's planning enforcement action against the Novotel, framed within the wider response of Labour councils to the Epping ruling on asylum hotels.
- 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.
- Stevenage council probe into planning breaches at asylum hotels · The Comet, 2025
The Comet reports Stevenage Borough Council launched a planning enforcement probe covering both the Novotel at Knebworth Park and the Ibis on Danestrete, arguing the long-term Home Office contracts amounted to use as a hostel rather than a hotel.
- Use of Ibis Hotel as accommodation for Asylum Seekers (Executive, item 8) · Stevenage Borough Council, 7 Dec 2022
Council Executive record of 7 December 2022. It says the Home Office wanted to work with Hertfordshire County Council and Stevenage Borough Council to determine which cohort would best fit the Ibis Hotel site up until 16 December 2022, noting a maximum bedspace of 178, and that this was in addition to the 183 asylum seekers already placed by the Home Office in the Novotel Hotel adjacent to Junction 7 of the A1(M). It refers to the Home Office pledge that the Ibis would be used for the purpose only until 16 December 2022. The 178 is a capacity and the 183 a single snapshot.
- Stevenage council probe into planning breaches at asylum hotels · The Comet, 21 Aug 2025
The Comet says the Novotel near junction 7 of the A1(M) and the Ibis in the town centre are currently being used to accommodate a total of 322 asylum seekers, and calls it the highest for any borough or district in Hertfordshire, which indicates a figure for Stevenage as a whole. It gives no split between the two hotels.