Independent shopkeepers on Mulberry Parade in West Drayton say they face ruin after receiving notices from Hillingdon Council that their rents will be substantially increased — in some cases by more than 100% — and backdated to when rent reviews should originally have taken place.
Shock, grief and the threat of eviction
Traders described the notices as devastating. Louise McGinty, who runs Funky Flowers and the adjoining café Nessy’s and Norman’s with her husband Eddie, said the hikes come on top of personal tragedy. She told local reporters her sister Vanessa, after whom the café is named, died in July 2025 aged 24, and a close family friend also died within weeks. The prospect of losing the business is adding further strain.
“The council have looked at properties in the borough and said that they are undervalued so they have to increase the rent. They are aggressively going to do this,”
The statement above was made by McGinty as she explained the impact on her enterprise which she says has served local residents for more than 20 years. Traders say the proposed increases would leave many unable to stay open.
Council justification and traders’ anger
Hillingdon Council says rents on some commercial properties have been held below market value for years and that it has a duty to “manage its commercial properties properly and achieve best value” for residents. According to traders, the rent reviews were due between one and three years ago, but were not carried out by the council at the scheduled times.
Now, they say, the council is not only implementing large increases but also backdating charges to the original review dates — a move traders describe as unfair given the council’s earlier decision not to carry out the reviews.
Who could be affected
Local businesses named in reporting include:
- Funky Flowers (Louise McGinty)
- Nessy’s and Norman’s café (Louise and Eddie McGinty)
- Carewell Chemist (Dalpat and Jaitsh Minstry)
Traders say the parade provides more than retail: community support, social space and local services that residents value. If leases become unaffordable, those services risk disappearing.
Financial detail and practical consequences
While exact figures for individual rent rises were not disclosed in the material supplied to WE NEWS, reporting indicates increases will exceed 100% for some tenants and that the council intends to apply increases retrospectively to the date the rent reviews should have occurred.
| Issue | Traders' position | Council position |
|---|---|---|
| Large rent increases | Threaten closures; unaffordable | Rents below market value; need to achieve best value |
| Backdating of increases | Unfair as reviews were not carried out on time | Implement review outcomes to correct undervaluation |
Local reaction and next steps
Traders have told local reporters that the rent review process should have happened earlier and that they were not warned their leases would be subject to backdated uplifts. One owner said the stress had left them reliant on sleeping medication. Community campaign groups typically respond to such cases by seeking meetings with councils, raising petitions, or lobbying ward councillors and MPs to intervene.
At street level, residents I spoke to expressed concern. One nearby shopper said the parade is a lifeline for older residents who rely on the chemist and café for daily contact. “If these places go, it won’t just be shops closing — it’ll be the end of support networks for people around here,” they said.
Accountability and transparency
The dispute underscores tensions local authorities face between securing value from commercial assets and protecting the high street. Traders argue that a phased approach, hardship protections or meaningful consultation would better balance those aims.
I have asked Hillingdon Council for further detail on how it calculated the increases, what support will be offered to small tenants, and whether it will reconsider backdating charges. The council’s initial line — that rents have been below market value and must be corrected — was confirmed in material provided to reporters, but further figures and a timetable for implementation were not made available at the time of publication.
For many on Mulberry Parade, the coming weeks will determine whether long-established businesses survive a policy change they say was sprung on them without adequate notice.
