Housing, Lampton, Labour Scandals and Dukes Meadows

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas in Chiswick, from the Christmas lights switch on last week to the appearance of Christmas trees outside of Sainsbury’s on the High Road. It’s my favourite time of year, but things don’t slow down for your local Chiswick councillors!

Housing continues to be a priority

Last weekend at my surgery I spent a long time talking to two constituents about housing issues, namely the terrible state of disrepair of their council-owned housing. As any councillor in any part of the borough will tell you, housing and the state of social housing is the number one issue we have in our inboxes.

There are two key issues with housing in our borough, and in London more widely - we don’t build enough of it (Hounslow managed to start just a single affordable home in the last 6 months), and social housing isn’t looked after properly. I’ve dedicated many hundreds of words in this column over the past few years talking about the former, and I was particularly frustrated to see that home building has taken a nosedive since the Labour government took office in May 2024 - instead of fixing the problem, they’re exacerbating it.

But the sorry state of social housing in our borough is also worth closer scrutiny. Cases like the ones I saw on Saturday are all the more frustrating because of the Labour council’s recent decision to vote against an excellent motion from my colleagues, Cllrs Peter Thompson and Joanna Biddolph, which called on Hounslow to urgently rectify some of the failings uncovered in the Housing Regulator’s inspection of social housing in the borough.

In particular, they called out the fact that only half of council-owned homes had been surveyed by the housing department in the last five years, well below similar rates in the neighbouring boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith and Hillingdon. There were also weaknesses identified “with the completion of overdue fire, water and electrical remedial actions”, and the regulator found evidence of poor reporting of health and safety compliance.

In last week’s Overview and Scrutiny meeting, I was given assurances by the lead member for housing that the council would complete a full survey of its housing stock by summer 2026. Given they’ve only managed half in five years, forgive me if I’m a little sceptical that the other half will only take them five months…

The Lampton farce continues

The other big topic on the scrutiny committee’ agenda last week was the Lampton Group - the council’s infamous wholly owned business which has been lent a quarter of a billion pounds of taxpayer money (despite making a loss every year since it was founded). Labour councillors blocked proposals to improve scrutiny on this group of companies, stating that existing scrutiny measures were sufficient.

As an example of just how robust the existing scrutiny of the Lampton Group is, we were asked at this meeting to welcome a three year business plan that hadn’t even been written yet. Despite me raising concerns that this clearly isn’t a very effective way to provide oversight of a business, the committee voted in favour of welcoming the proposed plan - nine Labour councillors in favour, one Conservative councillor (me) against.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that this Labour council is shirking its responsibility towards taxpayers to manage this group of companies effectively. It is becoming increasingly clear that the only way to end this financial mismanagement is to vote them out in next May’s election.

Another Labour scandal

If their financial mismanagement both locally and nationally wasn’t enough of a reason to vote them out, the increasing frequency of scandals involving Hounslow Labour councillors should be.

Since the last election, eleven Labour councillors have either resigned or defected to another party.

A Labour cabinet member was forced to stand down from his role overseeing enforcement in the borough after his law firm was shut down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority - he has since been suspended from the Labour Party, but curiously remains a candidate for the party in next year’s election.

Two weeks ago we learnt that another councillor, Faarhan Rehman, had parked his £200k Lamborghini in a disabled spot twice, but avoided a fine by paying a token amount to charity - despite a young single mum in Feltham being forced to pay £1,000 for placing a cardboard envelope next to a recycling bin instead of inside it. An elderly Chiswick resident was also fined £1,000 for the similar offence of leaving an envelope next to an overflowing recycling bin - only an intervention by local Conservative Councillors in Chiswick Riverside helped her to successfully overturn the decision. Talk about one rule for them and another rule for the rest of us.

And now, just a few days ago, we learnt that yet another Labour councillor, Hina Mir, lost her appeal against a £40,000 fine for employing an illegal immigrant as a live-in nanny. As reported following proceedings, the Indian student who Cllr Mir had hired “told police she was ‘physically abused’ and felt ‘suicidal’.”

The Hounslow Labour Party has retained all three of those councillors as candidates in next year’s election. Is this really the party we can trust to represent our community and run our borough?

Dukes Meadows Updates

Ending on a couple of updates from Dukes Meadows: local residents will have spotted that, despite activity on the resurfacing of Riverside Drive beginning several weeks ago, the site has been mysteriously quiet for the past fortnight. The latest update I was given on Thursday was that the works have been delayed to “accommodate events in the area”, but that work was still on track to be completed by the week commencing 15th December. Hopefully some Christmas cheer for residents who have long awaited a resurfaced road there!

The final plug I’d like to make is for the always-brilliant Dukes Meadows Trust, which will be unveiling a new Moon Jar sculpture in the playground area this Sunday (7th December) at 11am. It was very kindly made without charge, by resident ceramic artist Roz Wallis and was decorated by children from the Riverside Community Nursery. Pop along to see the unveiling and then enjoy the Dukes Meadows Food Market until 2pm!

Cllr Jack Emsley

jack.emsley@hounslow.gov.uk

07977 396017

DEMOCRACY: DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Anyone can attend public meetings of the council. Most meetings take place on the 6th Floor, Hounslow House, 7 Bath Road, TW3 3EB. Hounslow House is fully accessible. The nearest tube is Hounslow Central which does not have step-free access. Parking in local roads is limited.

Principal meetings are broadcast live on the Council’s YouTube channel

Tuesday 3 February 2026 Audit and Governance Committee 7:00 pm

Tuesday 10 March 2026 7:30 pm Budget Setting Meeting for the Annual Budget 2026/27 (moved from 24 February 2026). Including setting the Council Tax for April 2026 onwards

Chiswick Area Forum

Monday 17 March 2026 6.30 for 7.30pm

Normally at Hogarth Hall, Chiswick Town Hall, Heathfield Terrace, Turnham, W4 4JN, but moveable around Chiswick (please check the website)

Informal Meeting at 6.30pm. Formal Meeting commences at 7.30pm

Both meetings are open from 6.30pm allowing residents to meet officers of Hounslow Council in Adult and Child care Social Welfare, Education, Housing and other Services

(Residents are encouraged to stay on for the main agenda)

Emergencies

You can report emergencies outside office hours by ringing the council on: 020 8583 2222.

CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLOR SURGERIES

Chiswick: Every Saturday from 9.30am to 10.30am at Chiswick Library (the seven Conservative councillors take this surgery in turn).

Gunnersbury: First Saturday of the month from 10am to 11am at The Gunnersbury Triangle Club, Triangle Way, off The Ridgeway, W3 8LU (at least one of the Chiswick Gunnersbury ward councillors takes this surgery). 

CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLORS and CONTACTS

Chiswick Gunnersbury ward

Cllr Joanna Biddolph joanna.biddolph@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 703446

Cllr Ron Mushiso ron.mushiso@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 702887

Chiswick Homefields ward

Cllr Jack Emsley jack.emsley@hounslow.gov.uk 07977 396017

Cllr Gerald McGregor gerald.mcgregor@hounslow.gov.uk 07866 784821

Cllr John Todd john.todd@hounslow.gov.uk 07866 784651

Chiswick Riverside ward

Cllr Gabriella Giles gabriella.giles@hounslow.gov.uk 07966 270823

Cllr Peter Thompson peter.thompson@hounslow.gov.uk 07977 395810

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