Hotel group urges councils to develop new regeneration partnerships

A hotel group has implored local authorities across the West Midlands to support its growth by developing new regeneration partnerships.

Travelodge has contacted five councils to urge them to adopt the scheme as a way of boosting their dwindling budgets.

The hotel chain, which operates more than 550 hotels around the country – including 17 in the West Midlands, has contacted: Birmingham City Council; Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council; Redditch Borough Council; Sandwell City Council; and Solihull Metropolitan Council.

The group said it was playing a pivotal role in helping local authorities develop regeneration projects that helped to create jobs and boost their local economies.

During the last three years, Travelodge has participated in seven local authority partnership deals. These have included new hotels in: Aylesbury, Bicester, Dudley, Eastleigh, Redhill (scheduled to open at the end of this year), Telford (opening 2018) and Thetford.

It said the bespoke agreements benefited from a unique funding structure, all of which had enabled councils to utilise existing assets, create jobs, generate income, and regenerate land in strategically important locations.

Hotels in the programme are built on surplus local authority land, with the funding provided either through the council’s internal resource or via low-cost funding from the Public Works Loan Board or third party resources.

Upon completion of the hotel development, local authorities have the choice of either retaining ownership of the hotel and receiving an annual rent or selling the hotel with Travelodge as its operator.

The group’s new hotel in Dudley was one of those to benefit from such a partnership.

The scheme was funded via an innovative structure involving Dudley MBC, Hinton Properties, Travelodge and Aviva.

Peter Gowers, Travelodge chief executive, said: “More and more local authorities are under pressure to find ways to help regenerate their historic town centres and local communities. Adding a low-cost hotel like Travelodge is an increasingly attractive choice, as it draws visitors, creates jobs and helps boost the local economy.

“We are looking for more sites (like Dudley) to drive our expansion programme and we are writing to more than 200 other local authorities, to invite them to consider how Travelodge can act as a catalyst to drive their local development agenda.”