Each year we have to check that the right people are registered to vote at every address in the borough.
In July the Council’s electoral services began to contact all residential properties in the borough to ask residents to confirm who is currently living there and is eligible to vote. For the first time this year, some households are being communicated via email initially before a paper form is sent by post in August to any non-responding properties.
Electors living in just over 40,000 properties will receive the email inviting them to respond online to the Household Enquiry Form. These will be sent to any registered electors in the household who have previously supplied their email address to Electoral Services. The remaining 60,000 properties will be sent a Household Enquiry Form by post, but will still have the option to respond online via the online response service.
On Thursday 10 August, reminders will be emailed to people who haven’t yet responded to the initial email encouraging them to respond by Wednesday 16 August in order to avoid the council sending them another reminder by post.
Read our frequently asked questions
If you still have questions about the annual canvass, you can email us at elections@hounslow.gov.uk or contact our helpline on 020 8583 2828 (Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm).
The Household Enquiry Form is not a registration form, it is purely used to collect information about who is living in the property who is eligible to vote. Any new people that have moved into the property or have reached voting age and are not listed on the form or online response service will also need to complete their own individual application to register to vote. They should do this immediately online at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.
You must also still respond to the Household Enquiry Form. It is a legal requirement to respond to the Household Enquiry Form and if you don’t you could be fined £1,000.