More than 850 extra new homes will be built at the award-winning Acton Gardens development, following the adoption of a new masterplan for the site.

Big changes to planning policy since the old masterplan was approved in 2012 mean that the estate can now be substantially expanded. That in turn means that there will be a higher percentage of affordable homes on the estate.

The initial Acton Gardens masterplan from 2012 called for 2,350 new homes to be built in 11 phases over 15 years. Reflecting changes in planning policy, each of the more recent phases have been amended to deliver more homes than originally planned. Rather than continue to deviate from the 2012 masterplan, the council has now decided to put together a re-worked masterplan covering all of the remaining phases.

More much-needed affordable homes

Key features of the new plan include: 

• An uplift of over 850 new homes on the original masterplan, making the total number of new homes at the site just over 3,800. Overall that means there will be twice as many homes at the estate than before regeneration programme started.
• 40% of all new homes will be genuinely affordable – in other words, let at social rent levels. Two thirds of those homes will be family sized, replacing the one-bed homes which dominated the old South Acton estate.
• A further 9% will be shared equity or shared ownership for transferring leaseholders.
• A 31% increase in the number of affordable homes than existed before regeneration.
• A big boost to the Section 106 community contributions the developers make, which is used to fund community facilities like new health and education centres, improved roads and cyclist/pedestrian safety measures, and open space improvements.

A quarter of all of Ealing’s new homes

Under the revised masterplan, all existing tenants and leaseholders will be rehoused by autumn 2025, with construction completed by November 2028.

Overall, Acton Gardens will provide a quarter of all the new homes that are built in the borough between now and 2022. It is being delivered by Acton Gardens LLP – a joint venture between leading housing association L&Q and developers Countryside – to replace Ealing Council’s South Acton estate.

‘Great news for our borough’

Councillor Peter Mason is Ealing Council’s lead member for housing, planning and transformation. He said: “This big boost to the number of homes being built at Acton Gardens is great news for our borough. Every existing South Acton tenant who wants one of the safe, modern new flats at Acton Gardens will get one. Once completed, the new estate will host almost 1,300 socially rented homes, all of which will be well within the means of local people on low incomes.

“In the next three years, Ealing Council will create at least 2,500 genuinely affordable homes around the borough for local people, making us London’s most ambitious homebuilding council.”