Ealing Council has called on the Mayor of London to rethink proposed housing targets which it says promise homes that cannot be delivered while putting thousands of local jobs at risk.
The council responded to the draft London Plan with a letter to the mayor, insisting that although it supports the ambition behind the plan, particularly those relevant to affordable homes, this ambition must be tempered with realistic and deliverable expectations.
Under the draft plan, around 11,000 homes are expected to be built on existing industrial land in the borough. The council estimates that releasing industrial land on the scale proposed could put around 7,000 jobs at risk.
The borough has a very strong track record of building homes, the council says, having delivered more new homes than any other London borough in 2024/25 and averaging 784 affordable homes a year over the last five years. It currently has more affordable housing under construction than anywhere else in the capital, according to the council.
Council leader Peter Mason said: “People in our borough want more genuinely affordable homes, good local jobs, and thriving neighbourhoods where they can build their futures. We want London to be ambitious about housing, but that ambition has to be matched by a plan that can actually deliver.”
He added: “This cannot be a choice between homes or jobs. We want to work with the mayor on a London Plan that delivers both and creates stronger communities for the future.”
The letter goes on to say that a successful London Plan cannot simply be a housing plan. It must also be an economic plan, recognising that thriving communities depend on homes, jobs, transport, public services, open space, and other infrastructure.
The council argues that increasing a housing target does not, by itself, make homes deliverable. Delivery depends on realistic land capacity, infrastructure, affordable housing investment, and the ability of the market to build the homes planned.
Councillor Monica Hamidi, the council’s cabinet member for good growth, said: “Our industrial areas are a vital part of our economy. They provide space for businesses to grow, support thousands of jobs, and are part of supply chains across London. Once we lose this land, it is extremely difficult to replace.”
She added: “That’s why we’re asking the mayor to make sure housing targets are based on what can realistically be delivered, while protecting the land we need for jobs and economic growth. We want to deliver the right growth for our borough, for both existing and new residents. It needs to come with good, well-paid jobs, more genuinely affordable homes, and the investment and infrastructure that growing communities need.”
What the draft plan proposes
The draft London Plan, published in July 2026, is planning for 558,000 new homes between 2027 and 2036, with a goal of meeting the government’s housing need figure of 850,000 homes as soon as possible in the following ten-year period. It sets 10-year capacity-derived housing targets for each borough — for Ealing, the draft target is 32,054 homes, all on brownfield land.
Ealing’s objection is not to the ambition but to the deliverability: the council’s case is that a target is only meaningful if the land, infrastructure and investment exist to build the homes — and that releasing industrial land at the scale proposed would trade jobs for homes that may never be built.
The dispute comes as other boroughs wrestle with the same balance: Greenwich has just approved 452 council homes at Kidbrooke, while the mayor declined to intervene over an 802-home scheme at Deptford Creek after Lewisham refused it. Ealing’s letter adds a west London voice to a city-wide argument about where London’s next homes should go — and what gets lost when industrial land is released to build them.
