Potters International Hotel, Aldershot

Potters International is a hotel on Fleet Road in Aldershot, within Rushmoor Borough Council. As of June 2025 the Farnham Herald reported approximately 168 asylum seekers across hotel accommodation in the borough, with Potters International one of the named sites^[1]Press.

In July 2024 around 200 people gathered outside the hotel as part of an anti-asylum protest. While the majority of those present demonstrated peacefully, some members of the group turned violent, throwing objects at the hotel and shouting racist abuse. Hampshire Police deployed officers and aerial support to manage the disorder^[3]Press.

In October 2025 Hampshire Police confirmed that one man, aged 35, had been jailed for more than three years after being found guilty of violent disorder relating to that protest^[2]GOV.UK.

In 2025 Reform UK Aldershot lodged a formal planning enforcement complaint with Rushmoor Borough Council. The complaint identified 13 historic planning applications relating to the site, all of them for extensions, refurbishments and other works, but none authorising a change of use from class C1 hotel accommodation to long-term hostel-style residential use under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990^[1]Press.

At the £170 per person per night Migration Observatory benchmark^[4], the 168 asylum seekers reported across Rushmoor hotel accommodation imply borough wide headline taxpayer exposure of about £28,560 per night and roughly £10.4 million per year, of which Potters International is one of the contributing sites. 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.