Stay Belvedere Hotels contract for housing asylum seekers binned by Home Office

Craig Munro

Published March 25, 2025 9:52am Updated March 25, 2025 4:05pm

ENGLISH CHANNEL - MARCH 06: An inflatable dinghy carrying around 65 migrants crosses the English Channel on March 06, 2024 in the English Channel. According to official figures 401 migrants arrived in the UK by small boat on Monday, the busiest day of the year so far for Channel crossings. This brings the provisional total number of UK arrivals so far this year to 2,983. Government data indicates this is more than the 2,953 logged this time last year and surpasses the running totals documented between January 1 and March 4 each year since current records began in 2018. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) — More than 5,000 people have crossed the English Channel on small boats so far this year (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

The Home Office has scrapped a hotel chain’s contract for accommodating asylum seekers over ‘concerns about its performance and behaviour’.

Stay Belvedere Hotels, which operates 51 hotels in England and Wales as well as Napier Barracks, will no longer house people awaiting asylum decisions.

The company’s website boasts of being a ‘leading provider’ of asylum accommodation due to its expertise in providing services that ‘don’t just meet, but exceed the expectations of our clients’.

According to The Times, the firm that operated the Bibby Stockholm barge is among the operators that will take over control of the Stay Belvedere sites.

Angela Eagle, the minister for border security and asylum, said: ‘Since July, we have improved contract management and added more oversight of our suppliers of asylum accommodation.

‘We have made the decision to remove Stay Belvedere Hotels from the Home Office supply chain and will not hesitate to take further action to ensure Home Office contracts deliver for the UK.’

The company was awarded the wider contract, worth around £2 billion a year, under the Conservatives in 2019.

Napier Barracks became notorious for ‘inhumane conditions’ in 2020, with one asylum seeker describing those living there as ‘scared, depressed and traumatised’.

The following year, nearly 200 people at the site caught coronavirus in a wide outbreak.

PORTLAND, ENGLAND - JANUARY 30: Tugboats maneuver the Bibby Stockholm barge on January 30, 2025 in Portland, England. The Bibby Stockholm barge that the previous Conservative Government hired to house migrants while they awaited asylum outcomes, is set to begin a new life elsewhere after its time at Portland ended today. (Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images) — The Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland (Picture: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)

Australia-based Corporate Travel Management (CTM) is reportedly one of the contractors that will share management of the sites previously run by Stay Belvedere.