A group of Southall residents have published a report accusing Labour-run Ealing Council of presiding over “systemic failures” in housing, waste services and community provision for more than a decade.
What Happened to Southall?, was produced by Community Powered Reporting and uses council data, Freedom of Information responses and publicly available statistics to examine conditions in the area.
The report claims that many of the issues facing Southall – from fly-tipping to poor health outcomes – are not inevitable, but the result of political decisions taken by Ealing Labour which has been running the council since 2010.
Community Powered Reporting says the report is intended to “empower the community with evidence, data and analysis”.
Its publication comes weeks before local elections on 7 May 2026, and the group says it raises wider questions about accountability and decision-making in the borough.
Among the findings, the report says 35% of children in Ealing are living in poverty after housing costs, with Southall wards among the most deprived in west London. It also highlights that Ealing has one of the highest rates of rough sleeping in the capital.
Waste collection is singled out as a key failure. The report links the introduction of fortnightly bin collections in 2016 to a sharp rise in fly-tipping, which it says has more than doubled and now costs the council millions each year.
Housing is another major focus. The report claims that of roughly £100m allocated to deliver more than 1,100 affordable homes, only 180 had been completed by early 2026 — about 16% of the target. It also says the housing waiting list rose above 12,000 before falling after lower-priority applicants were removed from the register.
The authors also point to what they describe as a long-running pattern of community asset closures, including children’s centres, youth facilities and sports provision. Plans affecting 10 children’s centres are currently the subject of a High Court challenge.
Concerns are also raised about environmental health, particularly in relation to the redevelopment of the former Southall Gasworks site, where the report cites monitoring data showing exceedances of guideline levels for some pollutants.
The report concludes that a “consistent pattern” of decisions has concentrated disadvantage in Southall, while failing to deliver the infrastructure and services residents were promised.
Ealing Council has been approached for comment.
