Hillingdon’s Planning Committee has approved plans to replace parts of the Barn Hotel on West End Road in Ruislip Manor with 71 homes. Building work is unlikely to start for some time, though. Construction is unlikely before 2029 – because last month, Ealing Council decided to extend its lease to use the hotel as temporary housing for homeless families until the end of 2028.
The planning decision was made in September this year
On 15 September 2026, Hillingdon’s Planning Committee approved the application from Chase New Homes to redevelop the site. We first wrote about this application when it was submitted in October 2024,, and it has rumbled on ever since.
The approved scheme:
- 71 homes in total. 68 are in new buildings of two to four storeys. The other three are made by converting the Grade II listed Sherley’s Farmhouse and barn. Those are the listed buildings: they are being restored, not demolished.
- Mix: 26 one-bedroom, 30 two-bedroom, 14 three-bedroom and 1 four-bedroom home.
- Old and new buildings: the modern hotel buildings will be demolished. The listed buildings will be kept and repaired, as we explained in our article on the listed buildings. Historic England supported the scheme (what the heritage bodies said).
- Access and parking: the main access will be from Garden Close – not from the roundabout on West End Road. There will be 22 car parking spaces and 134 cycle spaces.
- No affordable housing. The developer argued the scheme could not afford any. Hillingdon’s own consultants agreed (we explained why in July). The council will require reviews of the scheme’s finances at an early and a late stage, which could lead to some affordable housing later.
- Payments to Hillingdon: £94,000 towards health facilities, £95,000 for public open space, £62,000 for air quality and £65,000 for carbon offsetting. Nothing for step-free access at Ruislip station.
- Listed buildings first: work on the listed buildings must be finished before some of the new blocks are completed.
The formal planning permission will only be issued once the developer and Hillingdon have signed a legal agreement (a “section 106 agreement”) covering these obligations. After that, the developer has three years to start work.
Ealing’s new lease
Since March 2024, Ealing Council has used the whole hotel as temporary accommodation for homeless families from Ealing. Ealing pays for it, not Hillingdon, and it is not an asylum hotel. The council first took a one-year lease and has extended it since.
On 7 October 2026, Ealing’s Cabinet agreed a new two-year lease running from 9 December 2026 to 8 December 2028. A short extension covers the period up to then.
Ealing also plans changes inside the hotel:
- 16 of the current 73 rooms will be knocked together to make 8 larger family rooms, leaving 59 rooms in total.
- The larger rooms will have small kitchenettes. The shared kitchen and laundry will stay.
- Ealing says it can house about the same number of households as now, because some large families currently occupy more than one room.
Ealing’s report puts the cost of the lease at about £2 million a year. The council says the hotel is better for families than bed-and-breakfast or commercial hotels, which it has been trying to stop using.
What this means for Ruislip and Ruislip Manor Residents
For the next couple of years, little will change on the site. The hotel will stay in use as temporary housing for Ealing families, and redevelopment is unlikely to begin before the end of 2028.
It could be longer. Ealing has already extended its use of the hotel several times. At our public meeting in October 2024, the developer said work would start six to nine months after permission and take about two and a half years. But the owner is paid rent for the hotel in the meantime, and its own figures show little profit from building now, so there is no obvious reason to hurry. It has three years from the formal decision to start work.
The approved plans may not be the last word either. National planning rules changed in August 2026, making it easier to get approval for new homes near stations. The committee’s decision was already made under the new rules, but the owner could still come back with a revised scheme, for example with more homes.
The dates could also change. Ealing still has to agree the final terms of its lease with the hotel’s owners, and the owner’s lease of the site, as published in August, allowed it to be taken back earlier.
We asked Cllr Susan O’Brien (Ruislip Manor ward Councillor, and Cabinet Member of the administration) for an update about the Barn Hotel – which falls in her ward. She told us “there is no update on the Barn, other than what is in the public domain“. We did our best to glean what is in the public domain, both from Hillingdon’s and Ealing’s website. We will continue to follow progress and keep residents updated as best we can as things develop.
Find out more
- Planning application 7969/APP/2024/2451 on Hillingdon’s planning portal (the linked listed building consent application is 7969/APP/2024/2452).
- Hillingdon Planning Committee, 15 September 2026: agenda and committee report.
- Ealing Council Cabinet, 7 October 2026: report and minutes for “Temporary Accommodation Leasing Proposal Renewal”.
- Ealing Council’s announcement: New 3-step plan to help stop homelessness (Around Ealing, 8 October 2026).
Our earlier articles on the Barn Hotel:
- New plans to redevelop the site have been submitted (October 2024)
- Questions and answers from our special public meeting with the developer (October 2024)
- Planning decision delayed (January 2025)
- Barn Hotel leased by Ealing Council as emergency housing for another year (August 2025)
- The redevelopment plans will not demolish the listed buildings (May 2026)
- What the heritage bodies say about the redevelopment (July 2026)
- Why there will be no affordable homes at the redevelopment (July 2026)
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