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| Grenfell shows us there’s no north/south divide. The gap is between rich and poor | Grenfell shows us there’s no north/south divide. The gap is between rich and poor |
| (13 days later) | |
| The UK is a divided nation, so we’re told. Old v young, urban v rural, north v south, London v everywhere else. To us provincial types, it seems London is full of man buns and cereal cafes, and I am led to believe that to many in the capital, we look like hayseed racists who are barely familiar with hot water, let alone innovation-led startups. | The UK is a divided nation, so we’re told. Old v young, urban v rural, north v south, London v everywhere else. To us provincial types, it seems London is full of man buns and cereal cafes, and I am led to believe that to many in the capital, we look like hayseed racists who are barely familiar with hot water, let alone innovation-led startups. |
| There are some north-south stereotypes that are fair enough. Northerners really do say, “How much?” every time they buy a pint of beer in London, for instance. But such stereotypes can mask a simmering resentment that goes beyond simply disagreeing over what small bread items are called (butties, by the way). London looks to us like a leech, sucking investment out of the rest of the country to bloat its already engorged property market. Londoners in turn point to the tax transfers that the capital makes to the rest of the country, telling us that it props us up, and so we should be grateful for whatever it deigns to give us. | There are some north-south stereotypes that are fair enough. Northerners really do say, “How much?” every time they buy a pint of beer in London, for instance. But such stereotypes can mask a simmering resentment that goes beyond simply disagreeing over what small bread items are called (butties, by the way). London looks to us like a leech, sucking investment out of the rest of the country to bloat its already engorged property market. Londoners in turn point to the tax transfers that the capital makes to the rest of the country, telling us that it props us up, and so we should be grateful for whatever it deigns to give us. |
| People outside the capital often consider the lack of investment, and indeed general lack of interest, from central government to be something of a geographical phenomenon. Lawmakers, the City, and much of the media are based – in some cases – within walking distance from each other. This leads to the impression that London is full of people who get a nosebleed if they go outside the M25. | People outside the capital often consider the lack of investment, and indeed general lack of interest, from central government to be something of a geographical phenomenon. Lawmakers, the City, and much of the media are based – in some cases – within walking distance from each other. This leads to the impression that London is full of people who get a nosebleed if they go outside the M25. |
| The Grenfell tragedy shows us, however, that the bubble doesn’t just separate the capital from the rest of us, but the wealthy and the powerful in London from their neighbours. The blaze that killed at least 79 people occurred just down the road from places where the wealthiest people in the country live. Kensington and Islington are names associated with affluence, yet they contain some of the most deprived areas in the UK. | The Grenfell tragedy shows us, however, that the bubble doesn’t just separate the capital from the rest of us, but the wealthy and the powerful in London from their neighbours. The blaze that killed at least 79 people occurred just down the road from places where the wealthiest people in the country live. Kensington and Islington are names associated with affluence, yet they contain some of the most deprived areas in the UK. |
| The Resolution Foundation’s recent report, The Generation of Wealth, contains some illuminating figures. Depending on what measures you use, London is one of the wealthiest and one of the poorest regions in the UK. | The Resolution Foundation’s recent report, The Generation of Wealth, contains some illuminating figures. Depending on what measures you use, London is one of the wealthiest and one of the poorest regions in the UK. |
| Median wealth in London is the second lowest in the country, with only the north east scoring lower. Half the people in London have a lower net worth than those in Wales or the Midlands. Mean wealth in London, on the other hand, is higher than any region other than the south east. The divergence between these two figures is the highest anywhere in the country, and tells us that inequality is rampant in the capital. It’s the “Bill Gates walks into a bar and makes everyone, on average, a millionaire” phenomenon. There’s a lot of money in London compared to anywhere else in the UK, and to most places in the world. But that doesn’t mean everyone in London actually has that money. | Median wealth in London is the second lowest in the country, with only the north east scoring lower. Half the people in London have a lower net worth than those in Wales or the Midlands. Mean wealth in London, on the other hand, is higher than any region other than the south east. The divergence between these two figures is the highest anywhere in the country, and tells us that inequality is rampant in the capital. It’s the “Bill Gates walks into a bar and makes everyone, on average, a millionaire” phenomenon. There’s a lot of money in London compared to anywhere else in the UK, and to most places in the world. But that doesn’t mean everyone in London actually has that money. |
| The indifference Westminster shows to regions outside London is tied in with the active neglect of London’s own poor residents. The hinterlands of the north are, after all, just the place all the poor folk are headed once they’ve been gentrified off all that lovely expensive land. In the aftermath of Grenfell, it’s clear that there are some people in London who think pricing working-class people out of their own homes is not only justified but the correct moral order of things. | The indifference Westminster shows to regions outside London is tied in with the active neglect of London’s own poor residents. The hinterlands of the north are, after all, just the place all the poor folk are headed once they’ve been gentrified off all that lovely expensive land. In the aftermath of Grenfell, it’s clear that there are some people in London who think pricing working-class people out of their own homes is not only justified but the correct moral order of things. |
| I spoke with Rachel Laurence, principle director of communities and localities at the New Economics Foundation. She told me that in her experience, it was “relatively rare for large-scale commercial development projects to be designed in such a way that income can filter to the local community”. The quintessential example is Media City in Salford Quays, where multimillion-pound developments and sweeping, modern apartment blocks are situated a stone’s throw from some of the most deprived parts of the city, with no way for the existing residents to access any of that wealth. Working-class communities don’t see investment as a benefit, because they know they will be seen not as beneficiaries but obstacles to be moved out of the way. | I spoke with Rachel Laurence, principle director of communities and localities at the New Economics Foundation. She told me that in her experience, it was “relatively rare for large-scale commercial development projects to be designed in such a way that income can filter to the local community”. The quintessential example is Media City in Salford Quays, where multimillion-pound developments and sweeping, modern apartment blocks are situated a stone’s throw from some of the most deprived parts of the city, with no way for the existing residents to access any of that wealth. Working-class communities don’t see investment as a benefit, because they know they will be seen not as beneficiaries but obstacles to be moved out of the way. |
| The London/everywhere else divide, while it feels very real, is really just a geographical expression of the class divide. London’s tax “subsidy” to the rest of the UK is as misleading as the statistics that show the very wealthy paying the most taxes. It’s not all Londoners, it’s a concentrated minority. The reason they pay more tax is because they have captured an ever-increasing share of the national income. Those at the top quote these tax transfer numbers as a sign that we can’t do anything without them, whereas in fact it just shows what an unbalanced and unequal country we have become. | The London/everywhere else divide, while it feels very real, is really just a geographical expression of the class divide. London’s tax “subsidy” to the rest of the UK is as misleading as the statistics that show the very wealthy paying the most taxes. It’s not all Londoners, it’s a concentrated minority. The reason they pay more tax is because they have captured an ever-increasing share of the national income. Those at the top quote these tax transfer numbers as a sign that we can’t do anything without them, whereas in fact it just shows what an unbalanced and unequal country we have become. |
| Just as we provincial types should take Grenfell as an eye-opener to the fact that “that London” is filled with people who can identify with our experiences of managed decline and active neglect, so should Londoners realise that most of them aren’t benefiting in the slightest from the property speculation that drives their rents up and means they have less disposable income than they would on a lower salary in Leeds. London-centric policy, ironically enough, harms working-class Londoners as much as it sucks investment from everywhere else. | Just as we provincial types should take Grenfell as an eye-opener to the fact that “that London” is filled with people who can identify with our experiences of managed decline and active neglect, so should Londoners realise that most of them aren’t benefiting in the slightest from the property speculation that drives their rents up and means they have less disposable income than they would on a lower salary in Leeds. London-centric policy, ironically enough, harms working-class Londoners as much as it sucks investment from everywhere else. |
| Working-class solidarity across the M25 divide is necessary if we’re to tackle the grip this property price-driven speculator class has on our whole economy. If the man buns can find common cause with the flat caps, we can start to push for change that benefits everyone. | Working-class solidarity across the M25 divide is necessary if we’re to tackle the grip this property price-driven speculator class has on our whole economy. If the man buns can find common cause with the flat caps, we can start to push for change that benefits everyone. |
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