The former Beales Hotel on Comet Way can stay a 53-room homeless hostel until 31 March 2028, with no objections. 142 flats are approved to replace it.

The former Beales Hotel on Comet Way in Hatfield can carry on as a hostel for homeless people until 31 March 2028. Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council granted temporary planning permission on Tuesday 15 September.

The application, reference 6/2026/1312/FULL, was made by the charity One YMCA, which has run the building as Hatfield Hostel since June 2021. It was decided by planning officers, not by committee.

Not one neighbour wrote in, for or against. Letters went out on 31 July and the comment period closed on 21 August. The council’s public health team said it had “no issues to raise”, and Hertfordshire County Council, as highway authority, did not object.

What the permission covers

The officers’ delegated report and the charity’s planning statement describe the site as it will run:

  • 53 en-suite rooms, each for one person
  • staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by 20 One YMCA staff
  • 119 car parking spaces and room for at least 20 bikes
  • no changes to the building, inside or out

The permission ends on 31 March 2028. After that the hostel use must stop unless a new application is approved. One YMCA’s lease runs to the same date, and its planning statement says “it is understood that this lease will not be renewed on expiry”.

Timeline of the former Beales Hotel, Hatfield: hotel closed March 2020, first temporary hostel permission June 2021, second permission September 2024, 142 flats approved September 2025, Peartree Campus completed April 2026, third permission granted 15 September 2026, hostel permission and lease end 31 March 2028, flats permission expires 16 September 2028.
How the former Beales Hotel became Hatfield Hostel. Source: Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council planning records. Graphic by Welwyn Online.

Why it needed permission again

This is the third temporary permission for the building. The hotel closed in March 2020, according to the charity’s statement.

The first permission, granted in June 2021, let One YMCA use it as decant space while its Peartree Lane hostel in Welwyn Garden City was rebuilt. That ran out on 18 June 2024. A second, granted in September 2024, ran to 31 March 2026.

So the building has had no planning permission for hostel use since the end of March. The charity’s statement says it “still occupy the premises by virtue of an extension to their lease”. The new application was lodged on 27 July.

The Peartree move, and who lives there now

The rebuilt Peartree Lane hostel was finished in April 2026, the planning statement says. The Diocese of St Albans reported its formal opening in May, as a four-storey building for 100 people.

According to One YMCA’s statement, the new campus was first filled with the 53 people who had been living at the Beales Hotel. It says the other 47 places were full within six weeks.

That left Hatfield Hostel free again. The statement says the charity had 40 people on a waiting list and planned to move them in during August 2026. It also says the borough council has given One YMCA a homelessness support grant until March 2028 for 53 residents at the Hatfield site.

The demand behind it

The charity’s case leans on the council’s own Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2025 to 2029. That document says homelessness approaches in the borough have risen by “around 10-15% a year”, and that the council is planning for a 15% rise in each of the first two years.

The same strategy charts the households the council placed in temporary accommodation each year:

Year Households placed
2019/20 222
2020/21 338
2021/22 300
2022/23 392
2023/24 459
2024/25 462

That is more than double in five years. The strategy says the council holds 118 units of temporary accommodation of its own, and that a lack of move-on options has meant using night shelters and placing some residents outside the borough, “such as in Peterborough”.

What happens to the site after 2028

The hostel is a stopgap. In September 2025 the council approved 6/2022/1355/MAJ, which would demolish the building and put up 142 flats, subject to a Section 106 agreement.

That permission expires on 16 September 2028, about six months after the hostel permission ends. The charity’s agent told the council that no applications to discharge any of its conditions had yet been made. The officers found nothing to suggest the hostel would get in the way of the flats being built.

A separate scheme at Howlands House

The Beales Hotel is not the council’s own temporary housing. That is being rebuilt separately at Howlands House in Welwyn Garden City. The council said on 14 September that revised plans had been submitted there after residents’ feedback, with fewer homes and lower buildings than first proposed. It puts the new total at 44 homes, and says the scheme should cut spending on hotels and B&Bs for emergency housing.

We could not find the revised Howlands House application on the council’s planning register on 17 September, so we cannot yet say what changed in detail.

What it means for you

If you live or work near Comet Way. Nothing physical changes. The building, car park and access stay as they are, and the use is the same one that has run there since 2021.

If you or someone you know needs help with housing. The borough council’s homelessness page is the starting point.

If you want to follow the site’s future. Watch for applications to discharge conditions on 6/2022/1355/MAJ. Those will be the first sign the 142 flats are moving. We track decisions on our Welwyn Hatfield planning news page.

Sources