The Economy and Sustainability Scrutiny Panel met on 18 September 2025, and agreed the panel's work programme and noted the sustainability and resilience reports. The panel also discussed economic growth and investment across Ealing's seven towns, with a case study on West Ealing.

Ealing's Seven Towns

The panel received a presentation on how Ealing Council is enabling economic growth and inward investment across Ealing's seven towns: Ealing, Southall, Acton, West Ealing, Northolt, Greenford and Perivale. The presentation highlighted the council's key strategies, including Ealing's New Local Plan, Ealing's Jobs & Skills Strategy, the Good for Ealing inward investment programme, and the Regeneration Frameworks for the seven towns.

The presentation outlined the following guiding principles:

• Good for Ealing: Attracting the right investors and businesses to the borough through an inclusive approach to inward investment.
• Polycentric approach: Enabling a more balanced approach to growth, that fairly distributes opportunity across Ealing's seven towns.
• 20 Minute Neighbourhoods: Ensuring every resident has convenient access to local jobs, services and amenities.
• Balancing housing and jobs-led growth: Prioritising a mixed-use approach to growth so residents can access both good quality employment and homes within their town area.
• Connected Communities: Facilitating social connection and empowering local communities to lead change.

A case study on West Ealing was presented, including the council's success in securing the GLA High Street Place Labs fund and setting up the West Ealing Action Group to work more closely with local stakeholders. William Mckenna, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Luxgrove, a property developer with sites in West Ealing, joined the presentation as an external stakeholder.

The presentation included socio-economic profiles for each of the seven towns, along with a summary of key interventions being delivered to address the unique challenges and opportunities faced by each town.

Sustainability and Resilience

The panel noted the content of the Sustainability and Resilience reports.

The panel made the following recommendations:

• Write to Councillor Donnelly regarding the cost of insurance for Ealing Council and the potential for mitigation investment to reduce those costs over time.
• Create a risk register at the level of individual buildings, noting that while super output areas[^1] have identified risks, there may be specific buildings in the borough that are at greater risk. [^1]: Super Output Areas (SOAs) are a geographic hierarchy developed by the Office for National Statistics to improve the reporting of small area statistics in England and Wales.
• Offer businesses an outline of individual mitigation actions they could take, providing this information directly in a single, comprehensive package.
• Consider incentivising businesses to act and highlight the cost of inaction.
• Keep the public better informed about climate action.
• Explore how Ealing's network of successful professionals could support young people, particularly by creating opportunities to practise interview skills online.
• Further discuss how to encourage mentors from industry or within the council to assist young people with interviews.
• Incentivise local businesses to offer summer placements.
• Collect more data on programme outcomes to ensure there is clear evidence of impact and a multiplier effect from the investment being made.

Panel Operations

The panel agreed the panel's work programme and responses to recommendations, the co-option and external engagement arrangements, and the Terms of Reference.