Ealing Council has abandoned plans to finish five half-built Henry Construction housing developments, concluding they are too costly and risky to complete after the collapse of contractor Henry Construction.
The five schemes were meant to provide 105 homes across the west London borough. The council has now approved a process to put the sites on the market.
What went wrong
Henry Construction was handed the £40 million job to deliver the homes in 2022 by Broadway Living, the council’s subsidiary housing company. But the firm collapsed in 2023, leaving the developments stalled part-way through.
In February, the council announced it was considering demolishing more than 100 homes across the stalled sites. Now, after specialist advice, it has concluded that keeping the partly built structures is not viable.
Defects and safety fears
Independent technical reviews found defects, missing construction records and unresolved warranty issues across the stalled sites. The report also raised concerns about structural and fire safety compliance.
Officers concluded that the cost and risks of repairs outweighed the benefits of completing the buildings. There was no guarantee the schemes would secure the necessary regulatory approvals.
“The original objective was to deliver the approved housing schemes,” the council said. “However, the contractor insolvencies, subsequent technical findings and significant changes in development economics mean the council must now focus on securing the best overall outcome from its current position.”
The five sites
- Chesterton & Evesham
- Norwood Road
- Shackleton Road
- Wood End
- Dean Gardens
A sixth development — Southall Market Car Park, being built by 4 Square Services before that contractor collapsed in May 2024 — was due to provide another 125 homes. The council said this was the only site where the existing structure might still be completed, though further investigations are needed.
£200,000 to move on
The decision includes approving £200,000 for consultancy, legal support and site survey costs as the council prepares to market the sites.
Council officers said the challenge was “no longer how to deliver the original schemes”, but to find the best way forward.
The council also commissioned financial assessments to examine completing the developments itself. These found that direct council delivery would require substantial extra investment — and that buying affordable homes elsewhere would be significantly cheaper.
A pattern across London
Ealing’s predicament is not unique. Contractor collapses have left a trail of stalled developments across London, as firms that won work during the boom years have been caught out by rising costs, labour shortages and tighter lending.
When a contractor goes under mid-build, councils face an unenviable choice: pour good money after bad trying to rescue defective structures, or cut their losses and start again. Ealing has chosen the latter.
The decision to market the sites means the land will likely be sold to developers who can start fresh — though what gets built, and when, remains to be seen.
What it means for housing
London needs homes desperately, and 105 lost homes is a significant blow for Ealing. But the council’s calculation is brutally pragmatic: throwing more money at defective, potentially unsafe buildings helps no one.
The hope is that selling the sites will at least return some value to the public purse — and that new developers will eventually deliver the homes the borough needs.
For now, though, five sites sit idle, monuments to a deal that went wrong.
The Broadway Living model itself is now under scrutiny. Council-owned housing companies were set up across London to build homes outside the constraints of the Housing Revenue Account — but when the contractor fails, it is the council, and ultimately the taxpayer, left holding the risk.
Questions will inevitably be asked about due diligence: how a £40 million contract was awarded to a firm that collapsed within a year, and whether warning signs were missed. The council has not addressed these questions publicly.
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