The Hounslow Local Plan
Each local authority in England has a Local Plan. And that is the case for the Borough of Hounslow. The Local Plan sets the strategic direction for change in the borough over the next 25 years – and as such is a very influential document for planning and promoting a sustainable community. It covers a wide range of topics including housing, businesses, parks, nature, flooding, pollution and transport.
From a Green point of view, it can be used to judge whether the borough of Hounslow is doing its fair share of addressing the environmental and social crises that we face.
The recent history of the local plan in Hounslow has been very unsatisfactory. A 2015 local plan, which is still current, got published but only approved with the condition that two further bits of work are done for the west of the borough and along the A4 in Brentford. After many attempts the council has still not managed to complete this. This has included almost yearly consultations and inspections without yet coming to any agreed output.
This blog is prompted by yet another attempt to agree a completely new local plan. The council have sent this to the planning inspector this week. As usual the council have made it hard to work out what they are proposing by the way they are presenting this.
From a Green point of view, the latest local plan attempt unsatisfactory in a number of ways:
- At least it does not propose to build housing on the Green Belt but does propose to have industrial encroachment on the Green Belt – in particular on Hatton Fields. We have long opposed this and do not find that there is a justification for doing this
- The plan does not sufficiently address the climate emergency. This is particularly in relation to the climate impact of the construction of new buildings
- The plan does not propose to build the right type of new homes. We support building fewer new homes, but there should be more social rent housing
- The local plan does not sufficiently address the electricity constraints in the area and how this could be addressed. This is of particular importance with the anticipated rapid change over the plan period for electric vehicles and heat pumps to heat our homes and other buildings
- There is insufficient prominence given to natural habitats in the area. There is some support for this in lower level guidance but without strong inclusion of this in the local plan, this guidance can just get ignored
- Although Heathrow is not in the borough, this anti-social neighbour is not adequately addressed to control the congestion, noise and pollution caused by it in the borough. Although the council claim to be against a bigger Heathrow, the local plan enables a bigger Heathrow by providing additional warehousing space for the airport.
The Hounslow Green Party has been actively involved in responding to consultations, engaging with councillors and council officers and participating in planning inspections. We will continue. But we know we have not made much impact on the final output – and we are under no illusions that we up against a lot more powerful forces and a system geared to come to particular conclusions.
We need more local people standing up for their communities and demanding a sustainable future for our borough. Join us and strengthen our voice!
Tony Firkins
08 July 2025