Royal Albion Hotel: Britannia yet to pay Brighton Council after fire

Brighton and Hove City Council has been footing the bill for the works surrounding the historic hotel after part of the building was gutted by fire in July.

But, despite the council saying owners Britannia Hotels would be paying for the clean-up and demolition, the company has still not paid anything towards the efforts.

A Freedom of Information Request to the council revealed that £1,575,567.77 had been spent on the demolition and safety operation following the fire.

In response to the request for how much of this Britannia had paid, a council spokesman said: “There are ongoing discussions between the council, Britannia Hotels and their insurers as to all monies due.

“There is a process of specialist quantity surveyors analysing the costs. As this process is being undertaken in three stages payments will be made as each stage is concluded.”

Royal Albion hotel fire (Image: Andrew Gardner)

The Royal Albion Hotel caught fire on Brighton seafront on July 15, over six months ago.

MOST READ:

• Two neighbouring fashion stores close leaving huge unit empty

• Longstanding seafront event axed

• School site on sale for £4.5m has potential to be redeveloped into housing

​To have access to all of our best stories subscribe to The Argus here

The Argus has looked at the council's spendings for 2023/2024  on its website and found that the money owed by Britannia would run the entire council for 15 hours.

Brighton and Hove City Council estimates that it cost £891.1 million to fund the council in the last year.

Similarly, the money owed by Britannia could pay for:

• All of Brighton and Hove’s leisure centres, parks and open spaces for nearly two months, or
• All the city’s libraries and museums for a month.
• 329 children to go to school in the city.
• 12 per cent of the Kingsway to the Sea project.
• All the bin collections in the city for a fortnight.
• The chief executive’s salary for nearly a decade.

Britannia Hotels was approached for comment and asked to publicly commit to paying back the money to the council.

The company failed to respond.

The Royal Albion Hotel fire was ruled to have been caused by a discarded cigarette.

Hundreds gathered along the seafront and promenade in shock and sadness as the fire ripped through the building.

As fire crews worked to tackle the blaze amid high winds, part of the roof of the historic hotel collapsed.

Guests of the Royal Albion were moved to nearby emergency accommodation and those living in nearby homes were evacuated from the site.

The Fire Brigades Union claimed firefighters worked 13-hour shifts and were forced to urinate in buckets as they fought to extinguish the blaze.

Britannia has failed to respond to all requests for comment from The Argus since July. There have been no updates on what will happen to the site.