Witney Four Pillars Hotel

The Witney Four Pillars Hotel sits on Ducklington Lane in Witney, West Oxfordshire (OX28 4EX). The Cotswold Journal reported in 2023 that the hotel was advertised for sale while still occupied as Home Office asylum accommodation, with nearly 200 asylum seekers, including over 60 children, housed at the site under the contract that began in November 2022^[1]Press.

Yahoo News UK and the Oxford Mail reported that the Home Office had extended the Witney contract through to the end of 2025, despite the wider hotel-exit programme that was closing other sites across the country^[3]Press. The government refused to comment on operational arrangements for asylum accommodation at the site, and West Oxfordshire District Council confirmed it remained a multi-agency support partner but was not a party to the Home Office contract.

The West Oxfordshire Conservatives published a letter from Cllr Michele Mead (Leader of the Opposition Conservative Group) and Cllr Liam Walker (Deputy Leader) calling on the Lib Dem-led council to seek injunctive relief to prevent the ongoing use of the Witney Four Pillars hotel for asylum accommodation. The letter cites the August 2025 Epping Forest District Council injunction at the Bell Hotel, which was granted on planning change-of-use grounds, as a possible precedent^[2]Council.

At the £170 per person per night Migration Observatory benchmark^[4], the Witney site at the reported peak of about 200 asylum seekers implies headline taxpayer exposure of around £34,000 per night and roughly £12.4 million per year. That is more than double the May 2025 NAO contract review average of about £5.84 million per year per hotel, reflecting the larger Witney capacity^[5]NAO.