Housing Stresses, Roads, Street Lighting and the Council's Budget
Chiswick Gunnersbury councillor Joanna Biddolph reports back
Cllr Joanna Biddolph
January 25, 2025
Housing has dominated my week and it’s not a happy story.
Housing evictions
I’ve written before about the heart-breaking side of being a councillor – seeing families in overcrowded conditions and/or living with damp and mould that is made worse when there are too many bodies for the space and/or old windows that stream with condensation. Evictions can be even more heart-rending and this week two have dominated my desk.
The eviction process is extremely long and protracted and often involves vulnerable people who cannot afford to pay currently very high rents and fall behind with their payments, or are threatened with increased and unaffordable rents that would lead to new leases that tenants can’t sign up to. One of the hardest aspects of the process is that tenants must stay put; they must not move out until the bailiffs are at their doors.
In one case, the resident has been living in extreme stress for four years with a cruel lease that increased the rent by an unimaginable amount every year which family stepped in to help with but this is now unsustainable. The resident can’t move to another privately-let flat because rents have escalated generally. Yes, yes, the resident should have read the lease before signing but there were wholly understandable extenuating circumstances behind missing that hugely important point.
As soon as I think I have a grasp of the complicated eviction process something new crops up. This time it was the hand-delivery by a bailiff of an N54 letter giving a date when the bailiffs would repossess the property. This court possession process is complicated and worrying. It will mean even more stress for the resident and the resident’s family.
One of the points residents find so hard to cope with is the fact that they must stay put until physically evicted. If residents move out before being evicted, they make themselves intentionally homeless and cease to be eligible for social housing. That route leads to the pavement (or a friend’s sofa, usually only a short-term option). The council will try to find somewhere for the resident before the dreaded knock on the door but it isn’t always possible and, even if it is, it is usually close to the eviction date.
In both cases this week, the soon-to-be evicted residents are eligible for sheltered accommodation. This becomes free unpredictably, Inevitably, and could be at any of the council’s sheltered blocks in the borough causing even more stress for older residents who have built lives in Chiswick. Councillors do their best to prepare them for this reality but it’s one no-one wants to hear. I often say that the council has some very good officers; it’s the policy-makers whose effect on resident’s lives is so woefully inadequate. Housing officers are implementing housing law. Lack of the right kinds of homes is not their fault; it is a failure of the council’s politically-motivated local plan for building and development.
HMOs
Most houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) are well run, causing no problems to neighbours or the neighbourhood. Unfortunately, some are run by rogue landlords whose management, or lack of it, causes months, sometimes years, of distress.
In the Gunnersbury Park Garden Estate in the centre-north of Chiswick Gunnersbury ward, poorly-run HMOs mean this pretty conservation area is almost permanently spoiled by inefficient recycling and waste management because irresponsible landlords with short-term churn tenants seem incapable of informing people moving in about what they should do.
In a road elsewhere in the ward, an HMO was provided with enough waste and recycling bins for 20 occupants. Disregard for managing waste by the new HMO landlord meant recycling boxes migrated to a hidden spot under a tree, never-to-be-used, and black sacks heaped-up in the front garden are never to be collected as they aren’t in the plentiful bins. The back garden has waste heaps, too. Part of the house is let as an Airbnb with fleeting visitors leaving their waste dysfunctionally, not knowing the rules. Indoors, the conditions reflect the outside; inevitably, the reviews are negative. The landlord is evasive.
In another road, a problem property is now the subject of court action so I’ll leave it there. The neighbours know very well where it is.
If you are concerned that a property might be a badly-run HMO – with three or more tenants in more than one household with shared loo, bathroom or kitchen – please report it. Councillors know it can be awkward for you to do this so tell one of us. We can raise it in our name, not yours, ensuring your anonymity. HMO registration ensures that common sense standards are being met, safeguarding occupants and the neighbourhood.
The HMO and waste management teams are responsive and determined. As I’ve said above about housing officers, praise where praise is due applies here, too.
Housing and climate change
Hounslow’s cabinet decision-making is often convoluted and obfuscatory. At Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, in an attempt to fiddle the council’s climate change success facts and figures, cabinet agreed to remove its social housing stock from its targets for the decarbonisation of its “operations” to achieve net zero by 2030. Given that housing is a statutory duty, it seems clear to me that providing housing is a core operation. Removing its housing stock from its climate change ambitions means that the council can go-slow on making its homes more energy efficient (replacing the windows streaming with condensation mentioned above now seems at greater risk of further delay). It seems that the net zero ambitions the council set, which we Conservative councillors recognised at the time as over-ambitious, were unachievable as my fellow councillor Gabriella Giles cautioned in the council chamber in 2019. There is a lot of fiddling the figures these days, locally and nationally, to make policies look as if they are working.
Housing associations
The national news has been full of horror stories about residents of housing associations, including people in shared ownership flats trying to step up the housing ladder, for whom services have failed and service charges have skyrocketed to the point where they are forced to sell-up, shattering their home-ownership dreams. I’m supporting two residents, of different housing associations, in their attempts to meet senior members of staff to get clarity on why there is no transparency behind the absurdly high costs for everyday services that are being poorly delivered. As so often happens in organisations that are out of touch with their customers’ reality, the issue has been escalated downwards to the point of not just more inefficiency but also more inaction. With one, I first asked for a meeting last April. The other one was raised with me in early 2019. Yes, you read that right. I met the senior director I had written to and was promised action and change. Six years later I’m still asking the same questions of the same director and the residents are getting the same inaction. The housing ombudsman is going to be busy.
Lowering standards on our roads
This year’s council budget includes a great deal of fiddling with the figures, pinpointing relatively small savings on services rather than targeting what many consider to be vanity projects and self-promotion. After much cabinet boasting about Hounslow’s road maintenance performance being recognised as top in London it has approved a proposal to save £300,000 by bringing the standard for the highways network “into line with the average for London”. That’s quite a fall from the top. Be ready for the resulting bumpy ride. The borough’s road maintenance programme is managed by Hounslow Highways. There are good officers who take pride in their work there, too. Being instructed to lower standards must be extremely dispiriting for morale.
Mulch
Still on roads, it’s mulch time. A request to clear this road revealed it was due to be swept within about two weeks. But clearing mulch requires shovels. Happily, Hounslow Highways promised action before the sweeping starts. If your road needs attention, do check the current road sweeping schedule. If your road isn’t on it and needs attention, ask one of your councillors if they can help add it to the list. [ ]
Be prepared for darkness
Another budget cut. To save £200,000 the council is proposing yet more dimming and trimming of our street lighting including possibly switching off street lights between midnight and dawn. Many residents – specifically women – are reluctant to go out at night because of the dark. Stepping over waste sacks, through slippery leaves, along uneven pavements, and trying to cross a complicated High Road with double bi-directional challenges keeps many at home. A further reduction in lighting will affect Chiswick’s night life putting restaurants, pubs and bars at greater risk. The safety of residents, visitors and workers should be at the top of the council’s priorities list; walking safely at night is central to that. If you think similarly, please sign our petition.
Councillor Joanna Biddolph
Chiswick Gunnersbury ward
07976 703446
DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES
Tuesday, 11 February: Cabinet
Thursday, 13 February: Planning committee
Tuesday, 25 February : Borough Council budget setting meeting
CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLOR SURGERIES
Chiswick: Every Saturday from 9.30am to 10.30am at Chiswick Library (the eight 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 Ranjit Gill ranjit.gill@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 702956
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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