Hounslow is one of London's most diverse, vibrant areas. We are home to 300,000 people speaking 188 languages, household names such as Brentford FC, Sky and JCDecaux, and 15,000 SMEs across a full range of sectors and the diversity of the borough. 

 At almost £15bn, Hounslow has one of the largest local authority area economies, with major representation of ICT, digital and gaming companies, and the highest concentration of media and broadcasting jobs in London.  

 Hounslow is also very green and very blue. As well as Hounslow Heath, we have 168 parks, the rivers Thames, Brent, Crane, and Longford, and the Grand Union Canal. Culturally rich, we boast Osterley House and Park, Duke's Meadows, Gunnersbury Park, Boston Manor Park, Syon Park, Chiswick House and Gardens; the Musical Museum, the Museum of Steam, Chiswick markets, Hogarth's House, Hounslow Urban Farm and Premier League football at Brentford FC. 

 Our schools are good or outstanding and we are, in educational terms, a social mobility hotspot. Social Mobility Commission analysis shows Hounslow offers some of the most promising prospects for our young people.  

 But within the borough, like many others, disparities can be stark, and the picture is not uniformly positive. Just six miles separate Chiswick - home to sports presenters and popstars - and Cranford, where many residents - directly under Heathrow's flight path - struggle to get by. We have one of the lowest median wages in the capital: closer to England's average than London's, at just £32,000.  

 In 2023 Hounslow Council agreed a ‘Fairer, More Equal Hounslow' strategy, co-designed through extensive engagement with over 1500 people. Their input, coupled with detailed data on inequality, provides a strong evidence-base on which to act.  

Our commitment now is to make change happen. Our approach means we will connect, coordinate and maximise all Council service contributions, bring our strong relationships with local organisations in Cranford, and harness investment from our developers.  

 Combining the data and what we heard from residents, we have begun tangible, specific work to systematically tackle inequity. Using data-driven approaches to address inequalities and deliver meaningful change for residents, we have identified inequality reduction measures in 30 ‘Equality Opportunity Areas', targeted to support those disadvantaged because of disability, age, ethnicity, gender, sexuality or faith. 

 One of those areas is Cranford. A village until the mid-20th century, when it was developed through the building of major roads, Cranford is now a suburban area located immediately east of one of the world's busiest, best-known airports; Heathrow. Among the biggest single-site employers in the country, Heathrow directly employs around 75,000 people and manages over 83 million passengers on 450,000 flights as well as £215 billion worth of cargo a year. The UK's biggest port by value has significant impact in the associated local economy and employment. 

 However, the benefits of that economic powerhouse do not always impact equally. In Cranford some 6,200 residents – often in socially-rented homes - mostly ‘just get by' in an area where transport and healthcare barriers, high unemployment, and economic hardship remain. In an ethnically and religiously diverse part of the world, many Cranford residents make ends meet through low-wage cleaning, retail, and hospitality jobs.  

Over 350 residents are actively seeking employment. 450 cannot work due to health concerns or caring responsibilities. Pre-diabetes, obesity and smoking are the top long-term health conditions in the area. For many, access to essential services such as pharmacies, GPs, supermarkets and green spaces remains frustratingly out of reach.  

 Our commitment now is to make change happen. Our approach means we will connect, coordinate and maximise all Council service contributions, bring our strong relationships with local organisations in Cranford, and harness investment from our developers.  

 We developed the Local Investment Framework for Equality (LIFE) to address inequality, focused on four strands:  

 

·       Employment and Raising Average Income. 

·       Education, Skills and Training and Supporting Digital Inclusion. 

·       Health and Wellbeing. 

·       Community Safety, Housing and Living Environment. 

Using ‘LIFE' we have developed hard targets for Cranford residents to gain qualifications, access training and get support to access good, well-paid jobs.  

 Many targets are more nuanced. Those relate to enabling employees in hospitality, sales, and elementary occupations to upskill and use foreign qualifications, to improving local childcare provision and to offering enhanced English language lessons. They commit us to revitalising greenspaces and improving street lighting near bus stops.  

 An Adult Education Centre in Cranford will transform into a Community Hub this year; offering tailored support to residents on issues such as money management, debt, housing and their health. That complements our localities model and brings key Council services closer to residents' doorsteps. Councillors, Council staff, partners, developers and local third-sector groups all play a vital part, with residents from the Cranford community, in designing and delivering this pioneering project. 

 And, to make sure our strategy works, Cranford people have established a community-based governance and monitoring group to hold us and our partners to account.  

 While Hounslow's ‘Business Case for Growth' is a bold strategy that assumes a thriving economy is an essential precursor to investing in place, we recognise how important that accountability is, as we deliver, because our commitment to growth - and the offer we make to the whole UK economy - goes hand-in-hand with our promises that the benefits of growth will be more equitably shared, and that we will make change happen. 

 

Mandy Skinner is the interim chief executive of Hounslow LBC