An Update on Budget Doom and Gloom

Chiswick Homefields councillor Gerald McGregor reports back

Councillor Gerald McGregor

February 7, 2026  

Firstly, before I continue with my blog, I would like to pay tribute to Cllr Karamat Malik (Heston West ward) for his insights into council behaviour and for his steadfast support for the Conservative Party.

Like Cllr Vickram Grewal Karamat joined us from Labour, a party he describes as ‘driving our community and the country to the brink’, and I cannot agree more. He, like Vickram and many others, has seen firsthand how the Labour Administration is failing our borough when dealing with past failed budgets, which were overspent and never managed, and why we need change with hopes for a better future.

We need renewal and we need change in Hounslow. May 2026 is our chance to show Labour enough is enough.

From National Commitment to Local reality in Hounslow “no more than confetti at a wedding”

The notion that all financial activity was in line with the Treasury Management Strategy (TMS) approved by the Labour administration at the Borough Council on 25 February 2025 is the current mantra, which, at the recent scrutiny meeting, turned into a fiasco for the borough administration.

A lead member of the cabinet, providing the background for the budget papers, got into a muddle and admitted that 20+ LTNs (planned Low Traffic Neighbourhoods) would be subject to closed circuit TV using Artificial Intelligence to issue fines on those transgressing the boundaries and hoping to raise £5,000,000, yes Five Million!!! from unwary motorists or perhaps that should be the population of tax- weary car drivers.

So the question of resident’s consultation for a democratic review, or even talking to the appropriate ward councillors about their opinions (do they support LTNs or not?) before making these decisions was never raised; so as I suggested in my last report back the budget, the paperwork surrounding the one Hounslow Strategy and the overall treasury management position have all deteriorated with no thought to reducing council expenditure, has turned out to be no more than confetti at a wedding.

So to repeat, there is an £80,000,000 black hole on the immediate horizon and no attempt to solve the problems of unsaved historic expenditure and the reduction of valuable reserves, save a plan to penalise working people by making Hounslow a place where normal social and commercial communication is a thing of the past and traffic, transport and economic activity are stifled for the future…unbelievable.

The unspoken low lights were the complete lack of any coherent response to the contingency funds being used to fill financial holes and the failure of the Council to hold itself to account in January of 2026 when, for the previous twenty years, we have always debated the government settlement and the outline of the council budget going to Cabinet and hence the terms of the council tax for April 2026 onwards.

NATIONAL POLITICS

Administration

No 10 has thrown away all the goodwill that led to the victory of the Labour Party in 2024 with 412 seats, but of course with two out of every three voters not going anywhere near them by voting for them

Finance

The Medium Financial forecast and supporting plans for the 2026/27 Budget made on 26th November 2025 by the Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves has come seriously unstuck. The local government support grant is full of holes and uncosted promises as she is continuing to spend ~ when a call to the IMF is now plotted on the forecasts of the Banking and Financial Services Community in the City. She then laid out a policy asking householders (many in Chiswick, Brentford and Bedfont) to pay for it in new capital taxes which were not in Labour’s manifesto. Does she still think the population is stupid? And where is the defence money to be spent on the security of our realm and of Europe, and the budget promised by Keir Starmer at the recent NATO meeting seems not to have materialised?

Scandals

No comment on the Mandelson affair, people have made up their own minds about this issue, apart from my complete sympathy for those unwittingly victimised and damaged.

LOCAL POLITICS

The Council meeting in February has also been put back from 26th February to 3rd March so there is a three month’s plus long gap for any sort of rational scrutiny (and we are meant to be living in a democracy). The problem lies with the administration.

Elected with 52 out of 62 councillors on the Borough Council the tale of woe and misconception began almost immediately; between then and recent times they have shed members (councillors) to the Greens, to Independents and of course to the Conservatives and this has begun a panic over loyalty and patronage in their ranks, with membership of committees of the council now being recast (to reflect the growing number of councillors no longer associating with the Labour Party).

SNOOPERS CHARTER OVER RESIDENTS; CLOSED CIRCUIT CAMERAS in LTNs

And grinding the motorist and taxpayer to pay for it. And another nail in the coffin of freedom and liberty without any authoritarian oversight and control. And we are sleepwalking back to 1984) .

Cllr Gerald McGregor

gerald.mcgregor@hounslow.gov.uk

07866 784821

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

Council Meetings

Next Borough Council Not Till March!

Tuesday 10 March  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

There is public access for this meeting via a direct lift from the ground floor to the Council Meeting Room, so come and see your elected representatives in action. 6th Floor, Hounslow House, 7 Bath Road, Hounslow TW3 3EB

Chiswick Area Forum

Tuesday 17 March

Normally at Hogarth Hall, Chiswick Town Hall, Heathfield Terrace, Turnham, W4 4JN, but moveable around Chiswick (please check the website) 6.30 for 7.30pm

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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