With its marble bathrooms and promise of either classic Edwardian or art deco design, the superior queen rooms at London‘s prestigious Savoy hotel offer five-star indulgence – and the price tag to match.
A one-night stay for two in the plush accommodation – ranked the ‘number one best value’ five-star hotel on TripAdvisor – will set the lucky guests back a cool £665 tonight.
Yet remarkably this pales in comparison to the cost of a night in one of the capital’s least desirable temporary residences, a police cell.
For it is expected to cost taxpayers a whopping £688 to foot the bill to keep each prisoner in police custody every day as part of Operation Safeguard.
Labour this week confirmed they were forced to ‘reactivate’ the emergency measure due to a lack of space on the prison estate.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp told the Mail on Sunday: ‘The Government needs to urgently bring on stream more prison places – thousands of places were under construction at the time of the election – and rapidly deploy emergency temporary cells.
‘Prisoners should be kept where they belong – in prison – and not in police cells costing more than five-star hotels.’
The MoS has discovered there are a wealth of premium hotels all offering overnight stays for two people which are cheaper than the cost to the public purse of a prisoner being held in a police cell tonight.
With its marble bathrooms and promise of either classic Edwardian or art deco design, the superior queen rooms at London’s prestigious Savoy hotel (pictured) offer five-star indulgence – and the price tag to match. A one-night stay for two in the plush accommodation – ranked the ‘number one best value’ five-star hotel on TripAdvisor – will set the lucky guests back a cool £665 tonight
Yet remarkably this pales in comparison to the cost of a night in one of the capital’s least desirable temporary residences, a police cell (pictured)
A lounge king room at the sustainability-focused 1 Hotel Mayfair (pictured) – in one of London’s most sought-after districts – comes in at just £502
It will cost just £642 to stay in a superior room at the plush Ham Yard Hotel, a stone’s throw from Piccadilly Circus, according to prices found this week on Booking.com.
Those wishing to follow in the footsteps of the likes of celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber may wish to try Rosewood London, in the trendy borough of Camden, where a deluxe king room will cost £600.
It’s the same price for a superior king room at One Aldwych in the heart of Covent Garden, where guests are promised ‘a contemporary, stylish character ready to host, cocoon and enchant’.
A lounge king room at the sustainability-focused 1 Hotel Mayfair – in one of London’s most sought-after districts – comes in at just £502.
Coming in at one-third of the price of the police cell is the art’otel London Battersea Power Station, where an ‘art room king’ for two costs £234, and guests can use its signature rooftop pool.
And just across the water, the Chelsea Harbour Hotel and Spa will set guests back just £173 for a ‘Chelsea king suite’.
MPs were told this week that the adult male prison estate was operating at 99% occupancy, with less than 800 places available.
The Chelsea Harbour Hotel and Spa (pictured) will set guests back just £173 for a ‘Chelsea king suite’
It costs £600 for superior king room at One Aldwych (pictured) in the heart of Covent Garden, where guests are promised ‘a contemporary, stylish character ready to host, cocoon and enchant’
It will cost just £642 to stay in a superior room at the plush Ham Yard Hotel (pictured), a stone’s throw from Piccadilly Circus, according to prices found this week on Booking.com
This is despite efforts to ease overcrowding through recent early-release schemes.
The previous Tory government ran Operation Safeguard between February 2023 and September last year, where the average cost per police cell used was £688.
This reflected costs incurred by police in making Safeguard cells available, such as additional staffing and food.
A limited number of Operation Safeguard cells will be used across England and Wales, and will be kept under ongoing review.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘The new Government inherited a prison system in complete crisis and took the necessary action to stop our jails from running out of cells.
‘Operation Safeguard is a temporary measure also used by the previous government to ensure that the current demand on prison places does not disrupt essential frontline policing or court operations, while we build 14,000 new prison places and reform sentencing to reduce reoffending, cut crime, and make our streets safer.’