Royal Court Hotel, Keresley, Coventry
The Britannia owned Royal Court Hotel on Tamworth Road in Keresley, on the northern edge of Coventry, never housed asylum seekers. In 2020 Coventry City Council used Section 215 planning powers to stop the arrival of seventeen coachloads of asylum seekers contracted to be moved into the hotel by Home Office providers, citing disproportionate placement and pressure on local health services[1]Press[2]Press.
Abortive taxpayer cost
£95,000
Estimated abortive taxpayer cost: £95,000
Breakdown
Abortive taxpayer cost from the failed Royal Court Hotel placement: Coventry City Council legal and planning officer time defending the Section 215 intervention, Home Office contractor processing time before the move was halted, and West Midlands Police response to the Britain First protest at the site.
- Coventry City Council legal and planning officer processing time£40,000
- Home Office contracting and surveyor overhead before block£35,000
- West Midlands Police protest response (Britain First)£15,000
- Magistrates Court for protest disorder defendant£5,000
- Estimated total£95,000
No site-specific total has been published, so this figure approximates it using the contracted bed capacity (peak resident count as a proxy) at the £170/person/night NAO all-in benchmark across the documented asylum-use window. Home Office contracts pay for the full capacity whether beds are occupied or empty, so this is a rough "taxpayer exposure" measure — not a settled invoice.
Key Facts
Background
The Royal Court is a Britannia owned country house hotel of around 210 rooms on Tamworth Road in Keresley End, on the northern edge of Coventry. The site sits in 11 acres of landscaped grounds and has long been used for conferences and weddings.
Coventry City Council Section 215 intervention
In summer 2020 Home Office contractors were preparing to use the Royal Court as a third Coventry asylum hotel, on top of two sites already in operation in the city centre. The Coventry Observer reported that the council described the situation as one in which Coventry's good will was being taken advantage of, and confirmed that the council was using Section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to stop the change of use, on the basis that the city already hosted a disproportionate share of placements and that local health services would be unable to absorb the additional demand[1]Press.
Coventry Telegraph reported in parallel that it was understood seventeen coachloads of asylum seekers had been planned for the Royal Court before the council intervened, making the Section 215 use one of the most directly successful municipal interventions on record at that point[2]Press.
Britain First protest at the site
The Royal Court was also targeted in 2020 by a Britain First demonstration aimed at the proposed asylum use. CoventryLive reported that one man was charged with public order offences following disorder at the protest outside the hotel[3]Press.
Abortive cost analysis
The Royal Court never housed asylum seekers, but the failed placement still generated documented public costs. The site callout above shows an estimated abortive total of around £95,000 covering Coventry City Council legal and planning officer time spent on the Section 215 work, Home Office contractor processing time before the move was halted, the West Midlands Police response to the Britain First protest, and a magistrates court case for one defendant from that protest. The same logic the National Audit Office uses for large sites that absorb spend without delivering bed nights applies here at much smaller scale[5]NAO.
Even at this lower bound, the £95,000 represents around 560 person nights of asylum hotel accommodation at the £170/person/night Migration Observatory benchmark[4].
Cost in context
Royal Court Coventry
£95,000
abortive (no residents)
UK asylum hotel avg
£170
per person per night
Hostel bed
£30
commercial
RAF Linton-on-Ouse comparator
£2,900,000
abortive write-off
Timeline
Timeline
Pre-2020
Operates as Britannia Royal Court Hotel and conference venue in Keresley
2020
Home Office contractors prepare placement
Up to seventeen coachloads of asylum seekers planned to arrive on top of two existing Coventry asylum hotels.
2020
Coventry City Council uses Section 215 powers
Council halts the change of use, citing disproportionate placement and pressure on local services.
2020
Britain First protest at the hotel
One man charged with public order offences at a protest gathering outside the Royal Court.
Post-2020
Site returns to commercial use
Britannia continues to operate the Royal Court for commercial guests; the Coventry asylum estate is later litigated through the High Court.
Sources
- Coventry's good will is being taken advantage of: Council uses planning powers to stop asylum seekers being housed in third city hotel — Coventry Observer, Aug 2020
Coventry Observer reports Coventry City Council used Section 215 planning powers to prevent the Royal Court Hotel at Tamworth Road, Keresley from being used as a third city asylum hotel, citing disproportionate placement and pressure on local health services.
- City council use powers to stop arrival of asylum seekers at Coventry hotel — Coventry Telegraph (CoventryLive), Aug 2020
CoventryLive reports it was understood seventeen coachloads of asylum seekers were due to arrive at the Royal Court Hotel in Keresley before Coventry City Council intervened with planning powers to halt the move.
- Man charged after disorder at Britain First protest over asylum seekers at Coventry hotel — Coventry Telegraph (CoventryLive), 2020
CoventryLive reports a man was charged after disorder at a Britain First protest outside the Royal Court Hotel in Keresley during the period the council was preventing the hotel's use for asylum accommodation.
- 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.