Whitbread secures planning consent to convert Verity House in the South Bank area of the city centre into a 131-room hotel
Whitbread plc, owner of Premier Inn – the UK’s largest hotel brand – has received planning consent to transform Verity House, a vacant office building in the South Bank area of Leeds city centre, into a 131-room hotel.
Seeing the opportunity to capitalise on a highly accessible location minutes from Leeds Railway Station and the scenic waterfront of Granary Wharf, the FTSE-100 hotel company purchased the 44,000 sq ft (GIA) former office building at risk in October 2024.
A planning application for the development was submitted to Leeds City Council in May 2025.
Last week, the crucial section 106 agreement between Whitbread and the Council was signed, effectively paving the way for the development to proceed, following the delegation of decision-making to the city’s planners.
Construction work is expected to commence in early 2026 and complete in Spring 2027.
Jill Anderson, Acquisitions Manager for Whitbread, said:
“Gaining approval of our plans for Verity House is a major achievement in our efforts to deliver more high-quality, affordable bedrooms for our guests in Leeds City Centre. We’re seeing huge demand in the city and this wonderfully accessible location is sure to be incredibly popular for our business and leisure guests.
“Whitbread has a long and successful track record of converting office buildings into high-quality, successful Premier Inn hotels. By purchasing Verity House freehold last autumn, we demonstrated that Whitbread is unafraid to take on planning and development risk to convert former offices into hotels in locations that match our network plan requirements and meet the expectations of our guests for outstanding, easily accessible hotel locations.
“We’re actively looking for similar opportunities across the north of England as we continue to grow our hotel estate in the region.”
On opening, Verity House will complement three trading Premier Inns in Leeds city centre with a new 143-bedroom Premier Inn at Leeds Harewood Quarter is also under contract as part of a Council-led redevelopment.
The hotel will offer the latest format Premier Inn ‘Standard’ and ‘Premier Plus’ bedrooms.
Based on a mature occupancy of more than 80%, Whitbread expects more than 57,000 of its guests will stay at the Premier Inn at Verity House every year generating an additional £5.5 million in visitor expenditure annually – half of which is expected to be spent in Leeds city centre.
This latest investment in the city forms an important part of Whitbread’s strategy of expanding its hotel network in the north of England. Across the region, the company is searching for more than 20 new Premier Inn locations, in addition to 15 targets in Scotland and Northern Ireland, as it grows towards its long-term potential target of 125,000 UK & Ireland rooms.
As part of Whitbread’s Force for Good sustainability strategy, all Whitbread self-built or converted hotels will be powered solely by renewable electricity from 2025, and the company has a stated target to reduce water consumption per sleeper by 20% by 2030.
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