Whitbread is establishing a landbank in the expectation of a series of cheap property deals after it decided to scale down capital expenditure by a third this financial year.

The group, whose brands include the Premier Inn budget hotel chain, and Costa Coffee and the Beefeater, Table Table and Brewer’s Fayre restaurant chains, is pulling 2008-09 spending back from £300m to £200m and is aiming for a landbank of 1,000 rooms.