Key Points

• Ealing Council is due to consider a £30.28 million plan to buy 95 newly built homes at the Bollo Yard development in South Acton.
• The homes would all be let at social rent if the Cabinet approves the recommendation on Thursday, 9 July 2026.
• The report says the homes are in Block J/K of the scheme on Bollo Lane and that the developer, Hurlington Capital, has already accepted the council’s offer.
• The original housing mix included 49 London Affordable Rent homes and 46 shared ownership homes, but the council now wants all 95 for social rent.
• The block is described as an 11-storey building at its tallest point, and the construction has already started, meaning the housing mix cannot be changed.
• The agreed purchase price for the homes is £29.15 million, with the total capital budget rising to £30.28 million after associated costs.
• Council officers say the price works out at around £318,700 per home, compared with an estimated average open market value of about £564,100 for similar new-build properties.
• Funding would come from Greater London Authority grant, Right to Buy receipts and borrowing.
• If approved, the homes are expected to be completed in Q1/Q2 2028/29.
• The purchase would add to Ealing Council’s wider programme of buying new-build homes in bulk from private developers.
• The council says more than 3,000 families are currently living in temporary accommodation, and around 5,932 households are on the housing register.
• The report says average waiting times are about 10 years for a three-bedroom council home, 13 years for a four-bedroom property and six years for a two-bedroom flat.
• Ealing Council officers recommend approval, saying rejecting the proposal would mean missing an opportunity to increase genuinely affordable housing.

Ealing (West London News) June 6, 2026 — a £30.28 million proposal to buy 95 homes at the Bollo Yard development in South Acton is due to go before the council’s Cabinet on Thursday, with officers saying the purchase would add all 95 properties to the borough’s social rent stock.

The recommendation, set out in a report from Councillor Louise Brett, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for safe and genuinely affordable homes, and written by Sally Rawlings, principal project manager (pre-construction), says the homes would be acquired from developer Hurlington Capital at Block J/K of the Bollo Yard scheme on Bollo Lane.

The report says the developer has already accepted the council’s offer, and that the homes would move from their originally planned mix of London Affordable Rent and shared ownership into full social rent.

The council says the acquisition would help tackle a severe housing shortage that has left thousands of households in temporary accommodation and many more on the housing register.

What is the Bollo Yard proposal?

The proposal concerns 95 newly built homes at a single block within the Bollo Yard development in South Acton. According to the report, the block is 11 storeys at its tallest point and construction has already started, which means the mix of homes cannot now be altered in any practical way.

The council wants to purchase the entire block so that every home can be let at social rent rather than the original split between affordable rent and shared ownership.

As reported in the council paper, the scheme would include 27 one-bedroom homes, 60 two-bedroom homes and eight three-bedroom homes.

The report also says the commercial space in the building would be leased back to Hurlington Capital on a 999-year peppercorn lease under the proposed arrangement.

That detail matters because it shows the council is buying the housing element while allowing the developer to retain use of the commercial part of the scheme.

Why does the council want all 95 homes?

The central aim of the purchase is to increase the supply of genuinely affordable housing in Ealing. The report says more than 3,000 families in the borough are living in temporary accommodation, while around 5,932 applications are recorded on the housing register.

It also says households waiting for a three-bedroom council home face an average wait of 10 years, rising to 13 years for a four-bedroom property, with the average wait for a two-bedroom flat standing at six years.

That context is the main reason officers are recommending the deal. The report says rejecting the proposal would mean missing an opportunity to secure more homes for families in need, especially at a time when affordable housing starts across London have fallen sharply.

The council argues that bulk purchases from private developers have become one route available to local authorities seeking to deliver homes more quickly than through entirely new council-led schemes.

What would the deal cost?

The report gives a purchase price of £29.15 million for the homes themselves, with the full capital budget rising to £30.28 million once acquisition and project costs are included.

Council officers say that works out at roughly £318,700 per home, which they compare with an estimated average open market value of about £564,100 for similar new-build properties. On that basis, the report says the deal offers value for money.

Funding would come from a combination of Greater London Authority grant, Right to Buy receipts and borrowing.

The report does not present the funding package as unusual, but it does underline that the council would be committing substantial capital resources to secure a single block of housing.

The homes are proposed to be completed in Q1/Q2 2028/29, meaning the benefits of the purchase would not be immediate.

How does this fit Ealing’s wider housing programme?

The Bollo Yard proposal is described as the latest in a broader pattern of Ealing Council buying new-build homes in bulk from private developers.

The council previously approved the purchase of 180 homes at Green Quarter in Southall in May 2025 and 110 homes at Acton Gardens in September 2025.

If the Cabinet approves the Bollo Yard deal, the total number of homes acquired through the programme would rise to 385.

This approach suggests the council is using multiple large acquisitions rather than relying solely on one-off schemes.

The report frames that strategy as part of the borough’s response to high housing need and the pressure created by a shortage of social rent homes.

It also implies that the council is trying to act while homes remain available for purchase before completion, rather than waiting for future developments that may be slower to deliver.

Who is backing the recommendation?

The report was prepared for Cabinet consideration by Councillor Louise Brett and written by Sally Rawlings. Their recommendation is clear: approve the purchase.

The report says the council should proceed because the deal would help increase the stock of genuinely affordable homes and allow some families currently in temporary accommodation to be rehoused.

The council’s officers also emphasise that the terms have already been accepted by Hurlington Capital, which reduces the uncertainty around whether the acquisition can proceed if approved.

In reporting the proposal, the council paper presents the purchase as both financially defensible and socially necessary.

The key judgement for Cabinet is therefore whether the budget and borrowing required are justified by the housing benefit the scheme would deliver.

Why does the housing mix matter?

The original plan for the block was not all social rent. The report says the homes had been intended as 49 London Affordable Rent properties and 46 shared ownership homes before the council intervened. By buying the block in full, Ealing would change the tenure mix completely and turn every unit into social rent.

That change is important because social rent is generally the most affordable form of rented housing available through councils.

The report makes clear that the council sees this as a better outcome for households in acute housing need than a mixed-tenure scheme with shared ownership, which would not directly address the same level of affordability pressure.

The fact that the building is already under construction limits design flexibility, but it also creates a window for the council to secure the homes before they are sold or allocated under the original tenure plan.

What happens next?

Cabinet is due to consider the proposal on Thursday, 9 July 2026. If approved, the council will move ahead with acquiring Block J/K of the Bollo Yard development from Hurlington Capital.

If rejected, the report says the borough would lose an opportunity to add 95 more genuinely affordable homes to its stock.

The decision will also signal whether Ealing continues to lean on bulk purchases as a housing delivery strategy.

With completion still expected in 2028/29, the benefits would take time to reach residents, but the political decision itself is immediate and likely to be watched closely by housing campaigners, tenants and residents in South Acton.

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Background of the development

Ealing Council’s interest in buying homes directly from developers comes against a wider London backdrop of falling affordable housing starts, according to the report.

The pressure is especially acute in Ealing, where the council says thousands of families are in temporary accommodation and the housing register remains heavily oversubscribed.

The borough has already used bulk acquisitions as part of its response, including the Southall and Acton Gardens purchases referenced in the report.

Bollo Yard would be the next step in that sequence, showing how local authorities are trying to secure completed or nearly completed homes where building new social housing from scratch may take longer.

Prediction for residents

If the Cabinet approves the deal, the main beneficiaries are likely to be households on Ealing’s housing register, especially those in temporary accommodation or waiting many years for larger council homes.

The purchase could give the council more flexibility in making permanent offers to families who have been stuck in unstable housing situations.

For South Acton and the wider borough, the development may also strengthen the council’s argument for using direct acquisitions as a practical route to expanding social rent housing.

For residents waiting for rehousing, the effect would be gradual rather than immediate, because completion is not expected until 2028/29, but the decision would still shape how soon more genuinely affordable homes enter the local system.