The High Court has quashed Hounslow's permission for 132 flats at 1 Burlington Lane, finding councillors got a misleading account of the scheme already allowed.
The High Court has quashed Hounslow Council’s planning permission for a block of 132 flats up to 10 storeys high at 1 Burlington Lane, the office building on the Hogarth Roundabout.
The judgment was handed down on Monday 14 September. The judge found that councillors approved the scheme after being given a misleading account of the flats already allowed on the same site.
The challenge was brought by the Old Chiswick Protection Society, a charitable trust founded more than 50 years ago. The ruling is R (Old Chiswick Protection Society) v London Borough of Hounslow [2026] EWHC 2278 (Admin), published on the National Archives’ Find Case Law service.
What was approved, and what was quashed
The application, reference P/2024/2610, was made by Burlington Properties London Limited on 30 July 2024. According to the council’s committee report, it proposed:
- demolition of the existing five-storey office building
- a building of part 6 and part 10 storeys, with the tallest element 34.96 metres high
- 132 flats, 13 of them affordable
- a terrace of three-storey homes and flexible commercial space
- public realm improvements around the site
The site sits in the Chiswick House Conservation Area, in Chiswick Homefields ward. The judgment records that the Old Chiswick Conservation Area, with 70 listed buildings, is about 30 metres away.
The council’s own report accepted the scheme would cause “less than substantial harm” to several heritage assets. They included Chiswick House and Gardens, Hogarth House and St Nicholas’ Church. Officers judged that the benefits outweighed that harm.
The Planning Committee voted 13 to 1 to approve it on 7 August 2025. The permission was formally granted on 20 January 2026.
Why the judge quashed it
The case turned on a scheme the council had already lost an argument about.
In March 2023 Hounslow refused a plan to extend the existing building into 104 flats. It said the housing mix was poor, the flats would have unacceptable living conditions and the design would harm the area.
A Planning Inspector overturned that refusal on appeal on 12 April 2024. He found living conditions acceptable and called the design “of a high quality”. He said it would enhance the conservation area. That permission has since been implemented and still stands.
When the new 132-flat scheme came to committee, officers compared it with that 104-flat “fallback”. Their report told councillors the fallback was “not considered good design” and would provide “a poor quality of accommodation”.
HHJ Emma Kelly, sitting as a judge of the High Court, found three problems:
- the report did not tell councillors the Inspector had rejected those same criticisms
- councillors were not given the Inspector’s decision or his reasons
- the legal advice at the meeting told the committee it did not need to go into the details the Inspector considered
The judge said the committee “remained oblivious” to what the Inspector had found. Because the fallback carried “significant weight” in the balance, she ruled the committee “proceeded on a false premise”.
She refused the council’s argument that the result would have been the same anyway. That test, she said, requires it to be “highly likely”, and it was not.
The judgment includes a wider warning. “Public confidence in the planning system is in large part dependant on officers presenting accurate reports to councillors,” the judge wrote.
What the society argued at committee
The society’s president, a planning barrister, spoke against the scheme at the August 2025 meeting. The judgment quotes his view that the extra height “robs the church of its primacy”, a reference to St Nicholas’ Church.
He also pointed out that the report left out an objection from the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Officers accepted that at the meeting and read Richmond’s objection aloud.
What it means for you
The quashing removes the permission for the 132-flat scheme. It does not stop development on the site.
- The 104-flat scheme can still be built. The judgment records that the Inspector’s 2024 permission has been implemented and remains extant.
- The judgment does not decide whether a taller building is acceptable. It found a legal error in how the decision was made. The judge said guessing the committee’s answer would stray into judging the merits, which the court cannot do.
- No next step has been announced. The judgment does not say whether the application will go back to committee. Hounslow had published nothing about the ruling on its news page by Thursday 17 September.
If you want to follow the application, search reference P/2024/2610 on Hounslow’s planning register. We will report if it returns to the Planning Committee.
More local information: Chiswick planning news, Chiswick house prices and roadworks and travel in Chiswick.
Sources
- R (Old Chiswick Protection Society) v London Borough of Hounslow [2026] EWHC 2278 (Admin), approved judgment, 14 September 2026
- Hounslow Planning Committee report, P/2024/2610, 1 Burlington Lane, meeting of 7 August 2025
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