Ealing Council and residents' money: 6.5 million "written off", fraud in the system and the ombudsman again

The office on Uxbridge Road once again smells not of money, but of the lack of it. This is not a classic embezzlement with a suitcase, but for the taxpayer the effect is similar: millions went into a project that the council is now closing itself, and in addition there are frauds in housing, benefits and care.

The largest amount goes to Broadway Living. These are housing companies set up by Ealing Council to build cheaper housing. The council pumped around £43m into it. Then independent reviews - including Grant Thornton's - showed the companies were unsustainable. The official write-off, which the council took after the May elections, is around £6.55 million. Previous valuations said as much as PLN 15 million in negative capital. The opposition accused Labor of delaying the decision to close it until after the elections. The houses are to be returned to the council. Some investments in Southall, Northolt and Greenford are halfway done.

This is not the only clue. In July, the audit committee received a report on internal investigations for 2025/26. The numbers are dry but specific:

445 cases, 62 confirmed fraud;
£1.44m of actual and prevented losses;
20 municipal apartments confiscated from people who had no right to them;
disciplinary action against six council staff;
two verdicts regarding fraud in the so-called direct payment, i.e. money for care;
over £139,000 to be recovered from understated council tax;
130 Blue Badges invalidated.

This isn't a Nextdoor rumor. This is the council's own report. There were frauds in apartments, in tax relief, and in care - that is, where it hurts ordinary families the most.

And to top it all off, the ombudsman. At the end of August and on September 1, further rulings were made in a row: the council incorrectly recorded that the child had a sexually transmitted disease; a mother and her infant were placed in care where there was no hot water or heating, and then she was refused the next stage of her complaint; an elderly man with Parkinson's dementia couldn't get through. Each case individually looks like an "incident." Together they look like an office that loses people and then apologizes for £150 or £500.

For the people of Ealing, Northolt and Southall, the conclusion is simple. It doesn't take a big scandal involving a briefcase to lose public money. All you need is a company that was not closed down on time, an apartment given to the wrong person and a complaint that no one wants to finish. Broadway Living isn't the scandal of the week - it's a bill the council is just starting to pay.