A row has erupted even as a court hearing has concluded over the Peterborough City Council’s decision to sell a community complex that it owns, which has housed a Hindu temple since 1986, to the United Kingdom Islamic Mission (UKIM).
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Council leader Shabina Qayyum acknowledged “anxiety within the Hindu community” and said officials are exploring alternative premises. She said the the Bharat Hindu Samaj (BHS) temple trust “will not be left without a home”. Both parties in the case — the BHS trust and the UKIM — have said the dispute is not a contest between faiths, but a challenge to the council’s decision-making process.
The New England Complex, which the government owns, has been used by BHS since 1986. The temple was set up by Hindu families who arrived in Britain after being expelled from Uganda by dictator Idi Amin in 1972, and today serves an estimated 14,000 people from across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Lincolnshire, the local supplement of The Telegraphhas reported.
The city council’s cabinet agreed on December 16, 2025, to sell the complex to the highest bidder, as part of a wider plan to address the council’s roughly £500-million debt. The decision was referred back for a second look but the cabinet nonetheless confirmed the sale to the UKIM on February 10, 2026, on its part, the BBC reported.
The UKIM, which runs the nearby Khadijah Mosque, says its existing premises have been outgrown after nearly 40 years, and plans to build what it describes as a “unity centre” on the site, including prayer space, classrooms and sports facilities.
Bids that came in
The BHS has said publicly it understood a £1.3 million price had been agreed for it to buy the site. In court, the council’s barrister put BHS’s formal bid at £900,000 in cash plus £504,000 in assessed “social value” for its community work, against UKIM’s £1.4 million cash bid backed by proof of £5.4 million in funds. The UKIM had also offered to better any rival cash bid by up to 5%, the BBC reported.
The lawyer said the city council had taken the temple’s significance into account, and that the BHS would retain its tenancy until any redevelopment began. Alternative premises had been offered too, said the report.
For the BHS, its lawyer argued the council’s cabinet had relied on officers’ recommendations without adequate scrutiny, and that this amounted to an unlawful delegation of the decision. He said the council had not properly weighed its duties under the Equality Act 2010, given the impact closure would have on the temple’s community, which he said has no alternative premises, even while the UKIM operates roughly 40 centres and 60 branches nationwide, the BBC reported.
He noted that Peterborough has around 40 churches and 10 mosques, but only one Hindu temple within 35 miles. Fisher said the challenge was directed at the council’s process, not at UKIM or its bid.
BHS trustee Gauri Chaudhary told India Today TVthat the council indicated in March 2025 that the temple could bid for the property, but that trustees received no response to their offer for several months.
Census data from 2021 shows Muslims make up 12.2% of Peterborough’s population, while Hindus account for 1.8%.
The BHS has meanwhile raised more than £119,000 through a GoFundMe campaign for costs.
Its trustees say no viable alternative site or premises has been identified so far.
