71 new homes beside Ruislip station. Not one will be affordable — yet the council still said yes

71 homes at Ruislip’s former Barn Hotel — and not one affordable home

On Tuesday 15 September, Hillingdon’s planning committee did something that is becoming depressingly familiar in West London, although it should still trouble us. It unanimously approved plans to turn the former Barn Hotel site on West End Road in Ruislip into 71 homes. The developer, Chase New Homes, will provide no social rented or other affordable housing. Not a single home.

That is worth repeating, because in planning documents it quickly gets buried beneath the numbers. Seventy-one roofs over people’s heads. None provided as affordable housing. The same borough’s Local Plan sets a minimum affordable housing target of 35 per cent. On this site, that would mean around 25 homes, potentially offering some families on the waiting list a realistic chance. Under the approved proposals, those homes will not be provided.

The developer’s explanation follows a familiar argument: given construction costs, the listed buildings and the development permitted on the site, the scheme cannot support affordable housing and remain financially viable. The council reportedly has an independent assessment confirming that shortfall. It sounds substantial. In practice, it means the borough accepts the argument that “we cannot afford to provide cheaper homes” and, in return, secures the restoration of historic buildings and new homes for sale beside the station.

The heritage is real. The site contains three Grade II-listed buildings dating from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Sherley’s Farmhouse is to become a four-bedroom home. Leaning Barn and the Oak Room are to be converted into residential accommodation after later hotel extensions are removed. The modern hotel buildings will be demolished. In their place will come nine new blocks, ranging from two to four storeys. The largest, a four-storey building facing Ruislip station, will contain 31 flats.

The housing mix is distinctly London: 26 one-bedroom homes, 30 two-bedroom homes, 14 three-bedroom homes and one four-bedroom house. In total, there will be 56 flats and 15 houses. Anyone watching the market from Ealing, Greenford or Northolt will recognise the pattern. Plenty of smaller homes beside a station. Fewer larger homes for families with children. Even less within reach of someone relying on Universal Credit, needing social care support or waiting for council housing.

The council has not come away entirely empty-handed. The agreement is to include a provision requiring affordable housing viability to be reviewed if the scheme’s financial position improves during development. There is another significant condition: restoration of the listed buildings must be completed before occupation of blocks A, B and C, described as the most profitable parts of the scheme. The intention is to prevent a familiar outcome: the easily saleable homes go up first, while the historic barn remains beneath a tarpaulin, waiting for better times. Hillingdon has at least sought to prevent that on paper.

There were 215 objections and one letter of support. Ruislip Residents’ Association and some councillors raised concerns about neighbours’ privacy, the development’s treatment of the historic buildings and its scale. Those are important local concerns. From Ealing’s perspective, however, another issue stands out. West London is getting another collection of homes in a well-connected location, beside a station and close to the town centre, in a neighbouring borough where people already travel for work and daily life. Yet none of those homes is being secured as affordable housing for people who cannot meet market prices.

You do not have to feel attached to the hotel to recognise the pattern. First comes a property that no longer works commercially. Then a developer promises to preserve the historic fabric. Then a viability spreadsheet leaves no room for affordable housing. Finally comes unanimous approval. The concern is that councils feel caught between accepting such schemes and risking an appeal or no development at all. The result is housing that formally increases supply but remains beyond the reach of many people in our neighbourhoods.

For someone looking for a home in Ealing, Southall or Northolt, Ruislip is not another planet. It is a neighbour. It is part of the same everyday West London experience: the journey to the station, the pressure of rent and the familiar conversation about how “they are building, but not for us”. Seventy-one homes on West End Road will not settle that argument. They may change the view from the platform. They may save three historic buildings. As approved, however, the scheme provides no affordable homes.

If construction goes ahead, the affordable housing review clause deserves close attention. In London’s development agreements, such provisions can outlast a developer’s initial financial forecasts. Sometimes they become the only remaining opportunity for some of those doors to open to people who cannot afford market housing.

Commentary by EalingPulse.uk, 20 September 2026.