Ealing Temporary Accommodation Account v0.1

FY2024/25 public payments, Housing Demand suppliers and redaction patterns.

Period covered: April 2024 to March 2025. Last updated: 28 April 2026.

Summary

This first account analyses Ealing Council's published supplier payment files for April 2024 to March 2025.

The main finding is not simply that Ealing spent heavily on temporary accommodation. The more useful finding is that its public payment files reveal a concentrated set of Housing Demand suppliers, substantial Bed and Breakfast payments, and inconsistent redaction patterns within the same financial year.

Key findings in detail

Ealing's published payment files for April 2024 to March 2025 show:

• £685.5 million of total net payments across 123,886 council payment lines.
• £99.4 million of PLACE + housing-related payments.
• £62.2 million of PLACE > Housing Demand payments.
• £58.6 million of TA-likely Housing Demand payments.
• £43.6 million of Housing Demand payments coded as Rents.
• £14.9 million of Housing Demand payments coded as Bed and Breakfast Payments.
• The top 10 Housing Demand suppliers received £25.7 million, or about 41% of Housing Demand payments.
• The top 20 Housing Demand suppliers received £38.6 million, or about 62% of Housing Demand payments.
• Housing Demand payments include £4.33 million of redacted supplier payments.
• Twelve Supplier IDs appear both as named suppliers and as redacted suppliers in FY2024/25.

What Ealing says is happening

Ealing's March 2026 Cabinet paper says the borough faces high statutory homelessness demand, a contracting private rented sector and rising temporary accommodation costs. It reports that approximately 50% of Ealing's temporary accommodation homes are procured from the private rented sector.

The same paper asks Cabinet to approve leases for up to 400 temporary accommodation units, including a housing supply agreement for up to 200 units with Madison Brook. It compares an average annual cost of around £22,000 per Madison Brook property with around £40,000 for nightly-paid live-in accommodation.

Madison Brook does not appear in Ealing's FY2024/25 published spend files. That is consistent with the Housing Supply Agreement being approved by Cabinet on 11 March 2026. Payments under the agreement should be visible in later spend files if the scheme proceeds as planned.

Top visible Housing Demand suppliers

These are visible payments in Ealing's public files. They do not prove total contract value, supplier profit, accommodation quality, or ultimate property ownership.

Redaction pattern

Ealing's published transparency page says supplier names may be withheld where payments relate to organisations serving vulnerable groups.

The FY2024/25 payment files show a more complicated pattern. Twelve Supplier IDs appear both under named suppliers and under “Redacted Sensitive Supplier” in the same financial year.

Examples include:

• Supplier ID 23828: named in some invoices as Mrs H Bal trading as Bals Guest House, and redacted in other invoices.
• Supplier ID 12426: named in some invoices as HS Birk t/a Rosewood Park Property & Management Ltd, and redacted in other invoices.
• Supplier ID 28717: named in some invoices as SAB Partners t/a Melrose Lodge, and redacted in other invoices.
• Supplier ID 13470: named in some invoices as Mr BC Patel t/a Batoum Lodge, and redacted in other invoices.
• Supplier ID 9900017: appears across multiple named small landlords and also redacted entries.

The scrutiny point is narrow: if the same Supplier ID appears both named and redacted in the same financial year, the council should be able to explain how the redaction criteria were applied.

Altwood group note

Ealing's FY2024/25 payment files show £3.58 million paid to Altwood Properties Ltd and £1.58 million paid to Altwood Housing Ltd t/a Altwood Group Ltd within Housing Demand.

Companies House records identify Altwood Group Ltd, company number 13211699, as the person with significant control of Altwood Properties Limited, holding 75% or more of shares and voting rights. The two Altwood-labelled entities in Ealing's spend data therefore appear to sit under common ownership.

Combined visible Ealing Housing Demand spend across these entities in FY2024/25 is £5.16 million. This account does not state that the entities should be consolidated for accounting or legal purposes. It records the council's payment labels and the public Companies House records, and flags the relationship as a scrutiny question.

Altwood Properties also appears in published spend data from other West London boroughs, suggesting the supplier's role is not specific to Ealing. Later versions of London Homelessness Accounts will examine cross-borough patterns directly.

RRKV Prop Co Ltd

Ealing's FY2024/25 payment files show £2.67 million of Housing Demand payments to RRKV Prop Co Ltd.

Companies House records show RRKV Prop Co Ltd was incorporated on 25 October 2023. The company received the visible Ealing payments in the financial year immediately after incorporation. This does not imply wrongdoing. It is a useful scrutiny point because recently incorporated entities can become significant temporary accommodation counterparties quickly.

Method

This account uses Ealing Council's published supplier payment files for April 2024 to March 2025. See the methodology page for the full filter, supplier-ID handling and limitations.

Limitations

Published payment files show invoice-level payments. They do not by themselves prove:

• total contract value;
• supplier profit;
• accommodation quality;
• accommodation nights;
• whether accommodation sits inside or outside Ealing;
• ultimate property ownership;
• whether the payment relates to prevention, relief, temporary accommodation or another housing function.

Supplier names may be inconsistently written. Some suppliers appear under trading names. Some Supplier IDs may operate as generic payment references. Companies House matches are therefore treated as source-linked notes, not as final group consolidation.

Scrutiny questions

Supplier concentration

1. Which suppliers provided accommodation behind the largest Housing Demand payment lines in FY2024/25?
2. What financial and suitability checks does Ealing apply before recently incorporated entities become significant Housing Demand counterparties?

Redaction policy

3. How did Ealing apply its redaction policy where the same Supplier ID appears partly named and partly redacted?
4. Why does Supplier ID 9900017 appear across multiple named private landlords and redacted entries?

Accommodation nights

5. How many accommodation nights did each top supplier provide?
6. Which payments relate to nightly-paid accommodation, longer leases, B&Bs, hostels, private-sector leased accommodation or other categories?

Out-of-borough placements

7. Which placements were inside Ealing and which were outside the borough?

Madison Brook delivery risk

8. What controls apply to the Madison Brook agreement on delivery rate, voids, arrears, repairs, suitability and exit risk?

Strategic counterparty risk

9. How much of Ealing's TA spend is unrecoverable through subsidy rules?
10. Which supplier relationships should the council monitor as strategic counterparty risks?

Sources and downloads

• Ealing Council supplier payments over £250 Used for: FY2024/25 payment-line analysis, supplier names, Supplier IDs, Service Label, Organisation Unit, Expenditure Category and Net Amount.
• Ealing Cabinet paper, “Increasing the supply of temporary accommodation”, 11 March 2026 Used for: Madison Brook context, PRS dependency, £22k versus £40k comparison and subsidy-gap context.
• Companies House Used for: company numbers, incorporation dates, registered offices, PSC records and company status.
• London Councils homelessness briefing, December 2025 Used for: London-wide homelessness spend, temporary accommodation spend and borough overspend context.
• LSE London temporary accommodation subsidy-gap analysis, October 2025 Used for: London-wide TA subsidy shortfall context.
• Processed Ealing FY2024/25 Housing Demand dataset (available on request) Used for: supplier totals, redaction analysis and payment-category analysis.

Contact

Corrections, source documents, technical comments and tips welcome.

[email protected]