Ealing Council has purchased a block of flats from a developer to use as temporary housing in a bid to get people out of hotels.
It had previously been agreed that the flats would be ‘affordable’ using the London Affordable Rent and London Living Rent schemes.
The deal struck with the developer, City & Docklands, removes a previously agreed mix of permanent affordable tenancies to replace them with 31 discount market rent homes. These will be used to support those facing an imminent risk of homelessness.
The block of flats is in North Acton, at the One West Point development, which includes three other blocks and over 700 flats, at 6 Portal Way.
Ealing, like many other London boroughs, currently faces a temporary housing crisis, with one family placed over 270 miles out of the borough whilst they await a suitable permanent home. In April 2024, Ealing Council told the Local Democracy Reporting Service [LDRS] it houses around 3,000 families in temporary accommodation.
At the time, a spokesperson said: “We’re also focused on increasing the availability of affordable housing options, with a £150 million investment in new temporary accommodation planned.”
The purchase marks a shift in focus as these homes have been converted into short-term temporary housing as the council battles the crisis.
As of December 31, 2024, Ealing Council had 97 households placed in temporary accommodation outside of London. This was down from 112 households in 2023, however in 2021, only 3 Ealing households were placed outside of London.
In April 2025 the council told the LDRS: “It is not unusual for a London borough to place some of the people it houses out of the borough. Although we always seek to house residents as close as possible to things like work, schools, and support networks, affordability and availability means we sometimes have to go further afield, and some residents with limited ties to the borough are happy to move somewhere that is more affordable.”
As of September 2024, Ealing Council had over 8,000 households on the waiting list for a socially rented home. In 2023, more than 4,500 households approached the council as homeless or at immediate risk of homelessness – which the council said at the time was “the highest rate in the region and our highest rate on record”.
The council says that temporary accommodation in the private sector is becoming harder to find and more expensive. The report states: “The proposed change in tenure has arisen as the London Borough of Ealing purchased Block B and will be using it for short term affordable housing which better meets the council’s Strategic Housing Needs.”
To make up for the technical loss of affordable rented housing that had been secured in the planning agreement with the developer in 2020, the council will pay £2.39 million towards affordable housing elsewhere in the borough.
The block comprises 15 one-bedroom flats, 3 two-bedroom flats, and 13 three-bedroom flats. This adds 91 habitable rooms to the council’s stock of temporary accommodation. The Planning Committee voted unanimously in favour of the deed of variation to the planning agreement.
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