Whitbread will add six London hotels to its Premier Inn brand, creating 1,200 rooms and committing more than £100m to their development. Financial Times, The Independent

The company, which has 44 hotels in London, will add 400 rooms after buying three hotels from the Real Hotel Company for £18.5m, and will spend a further £12m on converting them to Premier Inn outlets. A further three hotels are being built on sites in Greater London. The capital value of lease commitments is £70m.

Whitbread is competing with Travelodge for the London budget hotels market, which studies suggest is expected to grow significantly over the next 20 years.