Officers back 71 homes at the Grade II listed Barn Hotel with no affordable housing at all. Hillingdon's planning committee decides on Tuesday 15 September.

Council officers have recommended approval for 71 homes on the site of the Barn Hotel in Ruislip, with no affordable housing in the scheme at all. Hillingdon’s planning committee decides on Tuesday 15 September at 7pm, in Committee Room 5 at the Civic Centre in Uxbridge.

The developer is Chase New Homes Ltd. The application has been running since October 2024 and drew 149 objections first time round. (Committee report, 7969/APP/2024/2451, Hillingdon Planning Committee, 15 September 2026)

The 0.96-hectare site sits about three miles north-east of Uxbridge, just south of Ruislip station and east of West End Road. At its centre are three Grade II listed buildings: Sherley’s Farmhouse, the Leaning Barn and the Oak Room. The hotel had 73 bedrooms. It has closed as a hotel and the buildings are now in use as temporary accommodation.

What is proposed

The scheme keeps and converts the listed buildings and demolishes the rest. New blocks would run from two to four storeys. In total:

  • 26 one-bedroom homes (37%)
  • 30 two-bedroom homes (42%)
  • 14 three-bedroom homes (20%)
  • 1 four-bedroom home (1%)
  • 0 affordable homes

Three of the 71 come from the listed buildings: the barn becomes two houses, the farmhouse becomes one four-bedroom house. The largest new block, behind Ruislip station, is four storeys and holds 31 flats.

Vehicles would enter from Garden Close rather than West End Road, which keeps its existing access for pedestrians, cyclists and emergency vehicles behind retractable bollards. There would be 22 car parking spaces for 71 homes, plus 134 residents’ cycle spaces and three short-stay ones.

Why there is no affordable housing

The report is blunt about it. Affordable housing was tested by the council’s own third-party viability consultants, and the conclusion was that the scheme could not carry any.

Instead, officers propose a section 106 agreement with early and late-stage viability review mechanisms, so that affordable housing could be required later if the numbers improve. The report describes the 21% family housing, meaning the 14 three-bedroom and one four-bedroom houses, as a benefit of the scheme.

The site is in Ruislip Manor ward. It has a Public Transport Access Level of 4, on a scale where 6b is the highest, and it falls inside the Ruislip Town Centre Air Quality Focus Area.

What else the scheme does not provide

Two shortfalls are set out in the officers’ own assessment.

  • Play space. The GLA’s population yield calculator puts the requirement at 215.8 square metres on site. The scheme provides none, beyond “some informal play features” in the green areas in front of the converted barn. Officers point to Shenley Park, within 500 metres, and say a larger open space payment covers it.
  • Private amenity space. The scheme falls below the standard in the council’s own local plan, though officers say it meets the London Plan standard.

On play space, the report says adding a separate payment “would place further unnecessary viability pressure on the delivery of the scheme”.

What the developer would pay

Four financial contributions are proposed, plus a monitoring fee set at 5% of the total.

Bar chart of proposed section 106 contributions for the Barn Hotel scheme: open space 95,000 pounds, health 94,106 pounds, carbon offset 64,889 pounds, air quality 62,106 pounds
The four financial contributions in the officers' recommendation, totalling £316,101 before the 5% monitoring fee. Graphic by Uxbridge News.
  • Public open space: £95,000
  • Health facilities (London Healthy Urban Development Unit): £94,106
  • Carbon offset: £64,889
  • Air quality mitigation: £62,106

The agreement would also tie the listed building works to the new homes. The approved repairs and conversion of the listed buildings must be finished before Blocks A to C are completed. Residents would be barred from applying for parking permits, Blue Badge holders excepted, and an employment and construction training scheme would be secured.

If the legal agreement is not signed within six months, officers ask for delegated authority to refuse the application instead.

Heritage, and the objections

Historic England supports the scheme and, in the report’s words, “commends the thoughtful response to context”. Officers still find the development causes less than substantial harm to the listed buildings, mainly by changing their setting. Building densely around them, the report says, “could make it more difficult to understand them as once rural buildings set in a spacious landscape”.

Under the 2026 National Planning Policy Framework, that harm has to be weighed against public benefit. Officers conclude the benefit wins, largely because of housing numbers: Hillingdon’s most recent position statement, of 1 April 2026, confirmed a 2.5-year supply of deliverable housing sites against the five years required.

Objectors have had two goes at it:

  • 2024 consultation: 122 neighbours written to, 149 objections, plus a petition with 66 valid signatures from residents of Eversley Crescent and Willow Grove.
  • 2026 re-consultation: 67 responses, 66 of them objecting and one in support, plus a petition with 26 valid signatures from residents of Sherley’s Court, the retirement block opposite.

The Ruislip Residents’ Association, the Ruislip, Northwood and Eastcote Local History Society and two ward councillors objected both times.

What it means for you

If you have an interest in this one, Tuesday is the day it is decided, not the day the consultation opens. The agenda and the full officer report are already published, and the committee is held in public at the Civic Centre in Uxbridge. The committee clerk is Ryan Dell, at democratic@hillingdon.gov.uk.

The wider point applies across the borough. With a 2.5-year housing land supply on the council’s own figures, officers are weighting housing numbers heavily in these balancing exercises, and viability assessments are producing schemes with no affordable homes in them. We track the borough’s planning picture on our Uxbridge planning news page, and what homes actually sell for on our Uxbridge house prices page.

Also before the committee on Tuesday

  • Homebase, Victoria Retail Park, Victoria Road, Ruislip: continued use as a retail unit including food sales, with external alterations and the demolition of the garden centre lean-to. Recommended for approval.
  • Novotel, 234 Bath Road: a retrospective application for a four-storey hotel extension with 128 rooms. Recommended for approval subject to a section 106 agreement.
  • Holland and Holland Shooting School: demolition of site buildings other than the retained timber-framed barn, and a new workshop building. Recommended for approval.
  • 13 Clammas Way and 42 Pield Heath Road, both householder-scale, and land west of Abbotswood Way, landscaping and public realm works. All recommended for approval.

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