This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/27/reconfiguration-london-akin-social-cleansing
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| The reconfiguration of London is akin to social cleansing | |
| (about 17 hours later) | |
| Residents woke up yesterday to the sight of "Yuppies Out" scrawled across the gleaming glass windows of the new branch of Foxtons estate agents in Brixton, south London. The graffiti follows an earlier incident last weekend which saw "yuck" written in smaller letters on the glass. | Residents woke up yesterday to the sight of "Yuppies Out" scrawled across the gleaming glass windows of the new branch of Foxtons estate agents in Brixton, south London. The graffiti follows an earlier incident last weekend which saw "yuck" written in smaller letters on the glass. |
| The graffiti taps into local fears that Brixton is on the frontline of a process of demographic change sweeping central London, with a combination of high rents and housing benefit cuts ensuring that places such as Brixton will no longer be affordable to those on low incomes. A similar situation across London has seen councils such as Westminster and Newham hit the headlines for proposals to rehouse tenants as far afield as Derby, Nottingham and Stoke. | The graffiti taps into local fears that Brixton is on the frontline of a process of demographic change sweeping central London, with a combination of high rents and housing benefit cuts ensuring that places such as Brixton will no longer be affordable to those on low incomes. A similar situation across London has seen councils such as Westminster and Newham hit the headlines for proposals to rehouse tenants as far afield as Derby, Nottingham and Stoke. |
| For many, this process goes much further than the gentrification the capital has long been used to and is akin to the "Kosovo-style social cleansing" that the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has been repeatedly warned of, but appears to have done little to address. | For many, this process goes much further than the gentrification the capital has long been used to and is akin to the "Kosovo-style social cleansing" that the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has been repeatedly warned of, but appears to have done little to address. |
| Meanwhile, it seems that housing worries are not limited to those on low incomes, with the wife of Mark Carney, the new Bank of England governor, complaining that her family is struggling to find a place to live in London, despite his £874,000 pay packet and £5,000-a-week housing allowance. In fact, Diana Carney's ill-judged comments reflect the reconfiguration of London, with shockingly high property prices in "prime" central London continually breaking new records, while large parts of the capital move out of reach for those on low incomes. According to the property website Rightmove, a five-bedroom apartment to rent at London's most exclusive address, One Hyde Park, costs £45,000 a week, which is well beyond the Carneys' budget. The influx of a new class of plutocrats, seeking to take advantage of London's global status as a tax haven, is undoubtedly skewing the top end of the property market. But while this is having an impact on the rest of the city, London's reconfiguration is largely the result of deliberate housing policies, with cuts to housing benefit paralleled by plans for large-scale demolition and redevelopment schemes which will change the social composition of central London. | Meanwhile, it seems that housing worries are not limited to those on low incomes, with the wife of Mark Carney, the new Bank of England governor, complaining that her family is struggling to find a place to live in London, despite his £874,000 pay packet and £5,000-a-week housing allowance. In fact, Diana Carney's ill-judged comments reflect the reconfiguration of London, with shockingly high property prices in "prime" central London continually breaking new records, while large parts of the capital move out of reach for those on low incomes. According to the property website Rightmove, a five-bedroom apartment to rent at London's most exclusive address, One Hyde Park, costs £45,000 a week, which is well beyond the Carneys' budget. The influx of a new class of plutocrats, seeking to take advantage of London's global status as a tax haven, is undoubtedly skewing the top end of the property market. But while this is having an impact on the rest of the city, London's reconfiguration is largely the result of deliberate housing policies, with cuts to housing benefit paralleled by plans for large-scale demolition and redevelopment schemes which will change the social composition of central London. |
| The proposed demolition of a number of London estates, including the Heygate estate in Southwark, the Carpenters estate in Newham and two estates connected to the Earls Court redevelopment project, follows this pattern, with large areas of social housing replaced by predominantly market housing. | The proposed demolition of a number of London estates, including the Heygate estate in Southwark, the Carpenters estate in Newham and two estates connected to the Earls Court redevelopment project, follows this pattern, with large areas of social housing replaced by predominantly market housing. |
| The Carpenters estate, on the edge of the Olympic Park in east London, is the subject of a battle between residents and Newham council, which plans to demolish the estate where hundreds of residents still live and replace it with a new campus for University College London. | The Carpenters estate, on the edge of the Olympic Park in east London, is the subject of a battle between residents and Newham council, which plans to demolish the estate where hundreds of residents still live and replace it with a new campus for University College London. |
| To the south in Southwark, another London borough facing a housing shortage, 1,100 homes now lie empty on the vast Heygate estate. It's a similar story in Earls Court, where proposals to demolish 760 homes on two adjoining housing estates are opposed by the great majority of the people living there. | To the south in Southwark, another London borough facing a housing shortage, 1,100 homes now lie empty on the vast Heygate estate. It's a similar story in Earls Court, where proposals to demolish 760 homes on two adjoining housing estates are opposed by the great majority of the people living there. |
| My new report, published by the lobbying transparency organisation Spinwatch, details how this process, which is widely opposed by estate residents, is subverting local democracy. The consultation process is derided as a "sham", while government promises to build much-needed affordable housing remain unfulfilled. | My new report, published by the lobbying transparency organisation Spinwatch, details how this process, which is widely opposed by estate residents, is subverting local democracy. The consultation process is derided as a "sham", while government promises to build much-needed affordable housing remain unfulfilled. |
| At the Heygate, only 79 of the 2,535 planned new homes on the site will be available to rent as social housing. And while 25% of homes have been earmarked as "affordable housing", since the definition of affordable housing was changed by the coalition to mean up to 80% of market rent, that rules out the vast majority of those on lower incomes. | At the Heygate, only 79 of the 2,535 planned new homes on the site will be available to rent as social housing. And while 25% of homes have been earmarked as "affordable housing", since the definition of affordable housing was changed by the coalition to mean up to 80% of market rent, that rules out the vast majority of those on lower incomes. |
| For cynical residents this approach is a continuation of the previous government's discredited Pathfinder programme, which aimed to increase land and property prices by demolishing existing homes in well-located areas in northern towns to build new properties that could be marketed to a wider social mix of people at higher prices. That policy, which saw thousands evicted from their homes and was widely regarded as a failure, led to widespread accusations of "social cleansing". Now we are seeing the same in London. | For cynical residents this approach is a continuation of the previous government's discredited Pathfinder programme, which aimed to increase land and property prices by demolishing existing homes in well-located areas in northern towns to build new properties that could be marketed to a wider social mix of people at higher prices. That policy, which saw thousands evicted from their homes and was widely regarded as a failure, led to widespread accusations of "social cleansing". Now we are seeing the same in London. |