Premier Inn, Whitbread’s budget hotel chain, has announced that is to open 12 new hotels by 2013.

The firm has already won planning permission for 10 of the hotels and has secured deals to build hotels at Belfast’s Titanic Quarter and in Islington, London.

The 12 new hotels will bring Premier Inn’s total number of rooms to 1,562.

As well as the Islington site, the company will open London hotels in Old Street, Greenwich and Waterloo. Other sites are Dalkeith, Edinburgh and Inverness in Scotland and Preston, Stratford-upon-Avon, Sunbury-on-Thames and Rochester in England.

Mark Anderson, commercial and property director at Whitbread Hotels & Restaurants, said: “We are growing our business to give our customers more choice and more locations where they can enjoy the Premier Inn experience.

“Securing high-value sites in prime locations in London and in key target towns and cities across the UK is the core of our expansion strategy over the next two years.”