Affordable Housing Starts Remain Stalled in Hounslow
Latest figures show no construction in latest quarter
Many affordable housing schemes in the borough have been proposed but never built. Picture: Hounslow Council
November 18, 2025
New data showing that no affordable homes have begun construction in the borough of Hounslow since June has renewed concern about the borough’s ability to deal with the housing shortage.
Hounslow’s figures follow earlier coverage this year that highlighted an already weak start in the first quarter of its financial year: the borough recorded only one affordable housing start between April and June. The latest quarterly update means starts in Hounslow have effectively ground to a halt while housing need in the borough continues to rise.
Jack Emsley, opposition Conservative councillor for Chiswick Homefields, said the data underlined his party’s view that the council and the Mayor of London are not delivering. He argued the borough was slipping backwards on housebuilding at a time when demand is highest.
Hounslow Council has previously pointed to a mixture of factors that make delivery difficult. In earlier statements the authority stressed wider market pressures, the long lead times on sites, the complexity of bringing forward mixed-tenure schemes and the need to secure viable funding and developer commitments. The council has also been publicly consulting on a refreshed housing strategy that sets out how it intends to prioritise council-led delivery, partnerships with registered providers and use of limited capital resources.
Hounslow’s stalled starts reflect a broader capital-wide problem. New figures for London show modest numbers of affordable housing starts across the city since April; overall starts are a fraction of the totals seen in recent years. Industry bodies, developers and councils point to a “perfect storm” of higher building costs, rising interest rates, tougher building-regulation requirements and squeezed grant budgets that together make many schemes marginal or unviable.
Those pressures have prompted emergency interventions at regional and national level. City Hall and central government have both signalled a willingness to relax some planning and affordability expectations temporarily to get more schemes moving, and the Mayor of London has been considering changes to how the capital’s affordability target is applied in order to unblock marginal developments. Proposals discussed publicly include short-term routes to consent with lower on-site affordable requirements in return for quicker delivery, though changes remain controversial among campaigners and some local politicians who argue that reducing targets risks undermining long-term social housing supply.
Developers and housing providers say the practical reasons for delays are familiar: sites take time to move through planning, viability appraisals increasingly show gaps between costs and expected values, and providers find it hard to assemble the subsidy packages needed to make social or genuinely affordable homes viable. For local authorities, constrained capital budgets and competing priorities mean that stepping in with council-led delivery is costly and slow.
In Hounslow, critics also point to the council’s decision last year to accept a reduction in the borough’s housing target as evidence of a slowing ambition. The council has argued that its strategies are shaped by realism about what can be delivered in the current market and by a wish to protect long-term financial sustainability.
For the borough, attention will focus on whether stalled starts translate into cancelled projects or simply delayed ones. Housing officials in Hounslow say they remain committed to increasing supply and are working with registered providers and developers to bring schemes forward where viability can be secured. The project for affordable units at the Brentford Police station site was delayed when the housing provider pulled out but a replacement has been found and new designs are being submitted.
Cllr Tom Bruce, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Assets, Regeneration and Development, commented, "Labour Councils build more affordable homes. That is a fact.
“Just look at our record. In the first three years of this administration, we built nearly twice the number of affordable homes than the next highest Conservative-run council. That is nearly twice the affordable homes built by all three London Lib Dem Councils combined.
"The data from this year tells a similar story. It shows that we oversaw the completion 216 affordable homes, while five Conservative Councils managed just 168 between them, and all three Lib Dem Councils delivered just 14. That means Hounslow Council had the 4th highest completion rate in London.
“As a Labour Council, it’s in our DNA to deliver the affordable housing our residents need. We will continue to push even further.
"Just last month, Hounslow's Cabinet took major steps to deliver a landmark social housing project in Brentford, as well as helping to unlock dozens of new affordable homes as part of the regeneration of Hanworth Park House.
"We'd be even further ahead if the Tories hadn't left a Liz-Truss-shaped hole in the national economy, but we've made significant strides since.
“Our Feltham, Hounslow, Chiswick and Brentford Masterplans set out a vision for how our borough will look in 2041, with ambitious plans to make housing more affordable. For the Conservatives, however, affordable homes simply aren’t a priority."
At the London level, any change in Mayor’s policy on affordability requirements would aim to trigger more starts by improving scheme viability; opponents warn this could reduce the number of genuinely affordable homes delivered if not accompanied by new funding. The effectiveness of such measures will depend on whether short-term incentives can be matched by longer-term grant and investment to keep affordable housing at the centre of new development.
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