Raven Hotel FAQs

A fire broke out at the Raven Hotel on 10 August 2025. Emergency services attended, and the building was made safe to enter once the fire was extinguished. Investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing.

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All of the building formerly used as the hotel but excluding the 20th century detached building in the rear car park.

The modern 20^th century extensions are being demolished and any vacant outbuildings. The black and white timber parts visible from St Andrew’s Street will remain. The black and white wing along St Andrew’s Road is to be demolished.

It is a privately owned building so the legal and financial responsibility to maintain the building lies with the owners.

Wychavon’s conservation officers and South Worcestershire Building Control officers have been carrying out regular monitoring visits to the site to check on the condition of the building. We have legal powers to intervene if we believe it is not being properly maintained or there is a safety risk to the public.

Local councillors and officers have also been pushing the owner to start work on the redevelopment for some time to help protect the building.

Because the Raven is a listed building in the centre of the town, any work must be carefully planned and carried out in line with the planning conditions agreed with the owner when approval was granted last year.

This includes detailed statements from the owner on how the remaining historic parts of the building will be secured, how demolition will be managed, and how the asbestos will be safely removed.

These steps are essential to make sure the site is both safe and secure for the public.

The process cannot begin overnight and requires careful consideration, but we are meeting with the owner every week to ensure progress is made as quickly as possible within the constraints of the site.

Wychavon has commissioned a specialist asbestos company to carry out air monitoring around the exterior of the Raven Hotel. Sampling was conducted at 10 locations, and all results recorded fell well below the UK legal limit. The specialist asbestos company has confirmed it is safe to enter the surrounding area.

The UK Health Security Agency has told Wychavon that although asbestos was present in the Raven Hotel, their risk assessment of the fire and air quality did not highlight any significant public health concerns and was not declared a major incident.

We have Building Control powers in relation to public safety and a variety of Conservation powers to protect a listed building.

All of these powers come with strict conditions that must be met before we are able to use them. They only allow us to do certain things, such as order specific repairs to stop the condition of a building deteriorating or to ensure public safety.

We have no powers to force anyone to develop anything or to just carry out general work not connected to a specific purpose.

CPOs are a legal last resort, needing a strong case and can take up to two years. In this case, the private owner already held full planning permission, granted in May 2024 and had publicly confirmed plans to redevelop, meaning the legal grounds for CPO were not satisfied.

Read more about the Compulsory Purchase Order process on the Government’s website.

A s106 agreement has been entered into requiring the owner to pay certain sums of money associated with the development.

The sums to be paid relate to affordable housing, sport, open space, active travel, footpath works and community travel and can only be spent for the purposes that they are taken for.

It is a listed building and so, under Government rules, no business rates are payable when it is empty.   

We don’t own the site and so it’s not for us to say what should and shouldn’t happen with it. Our role as a planning authority is to just assess and determine the plans presented to us, which we have done.

This is ultimately a question for the owner, but we are not aware the building is being actively marketed for sale.

Yes. Wychavon issued a Building Act notice requiring urgent works in October 2024. This was followed by a Court Order in November 2024 allowing the Council to undertake essential safety repairs.

The Council and Historic England intend to work with the developer to ensure that any salvaged items of significance are carefully removed, catalogued, and stored.

The majority of the plans are still applicable, but the developer may need to request some variation to the planning permission at some point in the future.

The original plans involved the demolition of a large part of the site, which was not listed, and its redevelopment for housing and other uses.

These essential safety works were carried out under legal powers, and we will be pursuing the owner to recover the costs of the works. While we cannot guarantee the outcome, we will explore every available route to recover the costs on behalf of residents.

Structural engineers appointed by the Council, together with Historic England, have confirmed that key historic elements of the building can be retained. The current planning consent for the site allows for the removal of the non-historic parts of the building; however, there are some conditions which need to be complied with before the demolition. The Council wants to ensure the stabilisation and security of the retained part of the building.

We will ensure that any historic or architectural features that need to be removed for safety reasons will be stored securely.

Our immediate priority is to make the site safe and protect what remains of its historic core. As the Raven Hotel is privately owned, the Council cannot simply rebuild it or dictate its use. The owner already had planning permission for redevelopment before the fire, and we will continue to closely monitor progress along with heritage experts.

We understand the frustration over the time it has taken to address the building’s deterioration. As a privately owned, Grade II listed building, our legal powers are limited. We can only intervene when there is a safety risk or where we are permitted to by law. Over the years, Wychavon has monitored the site closely and stepped in when legally possible.

In November last year, Wychavon obtained a court order requiring the owner to make the building safe. The Council carried out the required works when the owner didn’t comply with the Order.