Council 'taking action' to recover £1.2m hotel debt

Part of the Royal Albion hotel is Grade II*-listed by English Heritage

Brighton & Hove City Council says it is will take further action to recover £1.2m of taxpayer money from Britannia Hotels if it brings a "faster resolution" to the situation.

The council spent £1.7m to make the Royal Albion Hotel safe after parts of it were destroyed by a fire in July 2023.

Britannia Hotels, which owns the Royal Albion, has so far paid back just £500,000 of that amount according to the council, which says it is now looking at "other avenues for recovery" to get the remaining money back as soon as possible.

Britannia Hotels did not respond to a request for comment.

The council paid £1.7m for urgent work to make the area around the Brighton seafront hotel safe in the wake of the fire.

Britannia Hotels is liable for these costs but has an outstanding £1.2m balance with the authority, said the council.

A spokesperson for the council said: "Discussions are ongoing in relation to further payments from Britannia to reimburse the cost to the council and we are determined the full amount will be recovered.

"We are keeping these discussions with Britannia under frequent review and will consider other avenues for recovery of the outstanding sum if they are likely to now bring a faster resolution.

"We have already received £500,000, and we're pursuing the rest."

Further demolition work carried out in March was paid for by Britannia Hotels, not the council.

The BBC understands the council is working with Britannia Hotels on designs for a replacement building, but discussions are still at an early stage.