A recommendation on next steps for the Hilton Hotel project went before Cabinet Members on Thursday 2 October 2025. You can view the 2 October 2025 Cabinet agenda on the Democracy Peterborough website.
As the council is the primary secured creditor to the company that is in administration (Fletton Quays Hotel Ltd), the recommendation made to Cabinet was to direct the administrators to market and sell the Hilton Hotel site and to commit them to ensuring any sale of the site achieves best value.
This recommendation was a result of the latest independent advice the council received and investigations that have been carried out, including the estimated costs for completion, the financial risks for the council in completing the hotel, and the specialist skillsets that would be required to develop and maximise such a specialist asset holding.
The Cabinet’s decision to follow the recommendation was ‘called-in’ for further consideration.
A 'call-in' is a key element of the scrutiny function. It relates to the rights of councillors to call-in for examination an executive decision that has been made but not yet implemented.
Three councillors must sign a call-in request. This call-in request was made by Cllr John Howard, Cllr Marco Cereste and Cllr Alex Rafiq.
An Extraordinary meeting of the Sustainable Future City Council Scrutiny Committee took place on Monday 20 October 2025 at Sand Martin House to hear the reasons for the call-in and debate next steps.
Members of the committee decided to take no further action in relation to the Cabinet decision of 2 October 2025, in which case the original decision remains.
View the documents from the 20 October 2025 call-in meeting on the Democracy Peterborough website.
Project background
In September 2017, we agreed to provide capital funding (borrowed money) for the construction of the 160 room Fletton Quays Hilton Hotel. This was by way of a loan of up to £15m to Fletton Quays Hotel Ltd, the development company leading on the development of the hotel.
The hotel site is part of our flagship regeneration project in Fletton Quays, which comprises of:
- Our headquarters Sand Martin House
- 229 apartments
- A multi-storey car park
- Government Hub / Passport Office
Further development on this site includes:
- The new Cygnet Bridge
- Additional apartments
- A food and beverage operator in the Goods Shed
The hotel development was significantly delayed due to a slowdown in the construction industry during and following Covid and Brexit. Work on-site slowed in May 2023 and then stopped and the developer was put into administration on 17 October 2023.
Cabinet Members agreed to submit a credit bid for the hotel up to the value of our loan at a meeting on 30 May 2024. The council did not complete the credit bid and the hotel remains in the hands of the administrators, Teneo.
In the meantime, we undertook soft market testing to understand if there was any interest from those who may look to purchase the hotel. There were a number of expressions of interest.
At a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 15 October 2024, Cabinet Members approved the transfer of the hotel from the administrators to a preferred bidder. This sale fell through.
You can read more about the latest on this project in the following Cabinet agenda papers from previous meetings:
- Cabinet Report - Item No.9 - Hilton Hotel - 15 October 2024 (opens PDF on the Democracy Peterborough website)
- Cabinet Report - Item No.10 - Hilton Hotel - 16 July 2024 (opens PDF on the Democracy Peterborough website)
- Cabinet Agenda from 30 May 2024 meeting (opens PDF on the Democracy Peterborough website)
- Cabinet Report - Item No. 6 - Hilton Hotel - 22 March 2024 (opens PDF on the Democracy Peterborough website)
- Cabinet Report - Item No.10 - Hilton Hotel - 11 March 2024 (opens PDF on the Democracy Peterborough website)