Hillingdon firms have until midnight on Wednesday 14 October to enter the 2027 awards. Entry costs £30 plus VAT, and nothing at all for under-24s.
Businesses across Hillingdon have until midnight on Wednesday 14 October to enter the West London Business Awards, now in their 14th year. (Awards timeline, West London Business Awards)
Hillingdon is one of seven boroughs in the core eligibility area, alongside Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Harrow and Hounslow. The organiser also accepts entries from Kensington and Chelsea, Richmond, Spelthorne and Wandsworth. You do not have to be a member, and you do not even have to be based in West London, as long as you can evidence that you do business in one of those areas. (Terms and conditions, FAQs)
There are 27 categories this year, including the overall West London Company of the Year.
The dates
- Wednesday 14 October, midnight: entries close
- Monday 2 November: shortlisted companies are notified privately, and get 72 working hours to confirm they will attend
- Tuesday 10 November: the shortlist is published
- Friday 5 February 2027: the ceremony, a black tie gala dinner
The organiser has not published a venue for the 2027 ceremony. The 2026 one was at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham, about eight and a half miles south east of Uxbridge in the borough of Richmond upon Thames.
What it costs, and the catch worth knowing first
Entry is £30 plus VAT per submission, and it is not refundable. That fee comes off the price of a ticket or a table at the ceremony if you get that far.
The catch is in the terms. Shortlisted companies must book at least one ticket to the ceremony, so that winners are in the room to collect a trophy. Miss that, or fail to confirm within 72 working hours of being notified, and you give up your place on the shortlist. The organiser’s own advice is blunt: if you cannot attend on 5 February 2027, do not enter.
Ticket prices for the 2027 ceremony have not been published. For scale, West London Business’s own listing for the 2026 event put a single finalist ticket at £225 plus VAT and a full table of ten at £2,230 plus VAT for finalists. (West London Business Awards event listing)
Entering is also not the whole commitment. The terms say that a winner who is not already a West London Business member is generally expected to join, and that expectation is stated most firmly for whoever takes Company of the Year. Judges’ decisions are final, with no appeal.
Under-24s enter for nothing
The one exception to the £30 fee is the Next Generation set of categories, which are free:
- Kidpreneur of the Year, for under-12s
- Teenpreneur of the Year, ages 13 to 18
- Young Entrepreneur of the Year, ages 19 to 24
The organiser says any idea counts, large or small: an online shop, a community project that has outgrown itself, a line of goods, or services sold to friends and family. Shortlisted entrants under 18 do not have to buy a ticket, and one family member can come free, though licensing rules at the venue may limit them to the ceremony rather than the dinner.
For a Hillingdon teenager with a side project, that is a judged, named entry in a regional business award for nothing but the time it takes to write it.
Two new categories for 2027
The line-up has changed since February. Two categories are marked new this year:
- WL Data Centre Initiative of the Year
- Resilience Corporate of the Year
Two that ran in 2026, Environmental Corporate of the Year and Social Impact Leader of the Year, are not on the 2027 list. The rest cover SME sectors from logistics and manufacturing to food and drink, plus apprentices, green business, community investment and individual leadership. (2027 categories)
How Hillingdon did last time
The borough was not shut out in February. Apprentice of the Year (30+) went to an apprentice employed by the Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and trained by HRUC, the college group that includes Uxbridge College. An apprentice employed by the London Borough of Hillingdon itself, also trained by HRUC, was highly commended in the 16 to 29 category.
HRUC was named as the training provider for seven of the sixteen apprentices listed as winners or highly commended across the two age categories, more than any other provider. (2026 winners)
The overall West London Company of the Year 2026 was Doughlicious, which also took Manufacturing and Design Business of the Year and Park Royal Business of the Year.
One date to check before you rely on it
Two of the organiser’s own pages disagree. The awards site, twice, gives the deadline as Wednesday 14 October. A separate West London Business page promoting an online question and answer session gives it as “Friday 17 October” and dates that session “Monday 15 September”. (West London Business Awards FAQ session) Neither of those weekdays matches the date beside it: 17 October is a Saturday and 15 September is a Tuesday.
We have used the awards site’s date, which is internally consistent and matches the published judging schedule. If you are working to the wire, confirm with the awards team before the 14th rather than after it.
What it means for you
If you run a business in Uxbridge, Hayes, Ruislip, Northwood or anywhere else in the borough, the entry itself is £30 plus VAT. The real cost only lands if you are shortlisted, because at that point at least one ceremony ticket becomes compulsory. Work entered has to have been done between November 2025 and October 2026, so it is this year’s trading you are describing, not a life story.
Read the judging criteria before you write anything. Pick a single category from the SME sector group, because the organiser allows only one entry from that group, and add entries in the other groups if they fit.
The awards are run by West London Business, a company limited by guarantee that publishes a care-of address at the Old Vinyl Factory on Blyth Road in Hayes, inside the borough. Looking for the firms already trading around you? Our Uxbridge and Hillingdon business directory lists 501 of them.
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