Brixton news, rumour and general chat - August 2014

[shifting gears]

I walk past the coldharbour lane entrance to the village on my way home every night - and rarely if ever have I seen such a homogenous gathering of people as those clogging the tables outside. It's like Being John Malkovich, except everyone is Teuchter.

 

[boohoo]

I walk past the coldharbour lane entrance to the village on my way home every night - and rarely if ever have I seen such a homogenous gathering of people as those clogging the tables outside. It's like Being John Malkovich, except everyone is Teuchter.

really? I've not met lots of people like teuchter - had you had a few drinks?

 

[editor]

But not too bad if you have a social housing landlord - LA or RSL - my parents have lived in a LA now RSL place for 38 years, have double the space that we do and pay half the rent that we do and they aren't in the suburbs.

Although social housing is not as safe as it use to be with the threat of sites being developed, it's a darn sight better than being with a private landlord.

A lot on the tenants I know on my estate are really worried that we'll get booted out.

 

[boohoo]

A lot on the tenants I know on my estate are really worried that we'll get booted out.

Through redevelopment?

 

[editor]

Through redevelopment?

Yep - perhaps along the lines of the nearby Guinness Trust . They've already floated the idea of demolishing the Barrier Block, but thankfully that genius plan seems to have been put on the shelf. For now.

 

[boohoo]

Yep - perhaps along the lines of the nearby Guinness Trust . They've already floated the idea of demolishing the Barrier Block, but thankfully that genius plan seems to have been put on the shelf. For now.

Seems that people are doing what they did a hundred years ago, displace the poor to benefit the rich.
However they should be obliged to house you though of course they could ship you to the edge of Lambeth or Streatham!

 

[madolesance]

Seems that people are doing what they did a hundred years ago, displace the poor to benefit the rich.
However they should be obliged to house you though of course they could ship you to the edge of Lambeth or Streatham!

Surly the edge of Lambeth is Streatham?

 

[Gramsci]

Through redevelopment?

I hear a lot of concerns from Council tenants that Council housing as it was will go within ten years times. The Lambeth Council tenants had to lobby (Labour) administration hard to stop them using time limited tenancies instead of secure tenancies.

The Labour Council is still pushing every now and then for Council estates to vote to transfer out of Council control. One recently at Cowley estate looks like its been knocked back.

If a Labour government gets into power will it protect Council housing? After all the last Labour government brought in ALMOS. Which Council tenants widely saw as first step towards getting rid of Council housing.

As for RSLs/ Housing Associations. Some are starting to use the new "affordable" rents (up to 80% market rent). I know for a fact that at least one RSL in Brixton area is bringing in the new time limited tenancies.

If another Tory government is elected with a new Tory Mayor of London I doubt that social housing as its been known since post WW2 will exist for much longer.

 

[boohoo]

Surly the edge of Lambeth is Streatham?

There is more than one edge to Lambeth!!

 

[shifting gears]

really? I've not met lots of people like teuchter - had you had a few drinks?

Nah I don't get paid till tomorrow.

 

[Gramsci]

The village is a symptom, not a cause. The causes of Brixton's gentrification are this:

View attachment 59884

And this:

View attachment 59885

Incorrect analysis. Shortage of housing does not automatically lead to "gentrification".

There is no shortage of housing for the rich. Take houses I see in Mayfair for example. They are left empty for a lot of the time.

Little affordable housing has been built in London for years.

Countries with different economic systems can have a housing shortage but not gentrification.

A cause of the gentrification in London can be traced back to Thatchers deregulation of the City ( the "Big Bang") in 80s. Up until then London was losing population. The City turned London into a centre for casino capitalism. This did little for the average Londoner but made London sexy again for the financial class. Also London had a no questions asked policy for the new uber rich like Russian Oligarchs. Who found they liked London. Safe secure with access to lawyers etc. Unlike the chaotic mess they made of there own country.

This did not have to happen. Economic forces were let rip in 80s onwards. It was left to the "free" market.

 

[leanderman]

Incorrect analysis. Shortage of housing does not automatically lead to "gentrification".

Doesn't seem incorrect to me.

It's quite plausible that a housing shortage pushes up property costs and drives gentry types out of Fulham, Clapham etc and into Brixton.

 

[Gramsci]

Doesn't seem incorrect to me.

It's quite plausible that a housing shortage pushes up property costs and drives gentry types out of Fulham, Clapham etc and into Brixton.

What I am saying is that its a superficial analysis to automatically link gentrification to house prices.

Gentrification is a cultural process. There is no concrete reason why an increase in house prices automatically leads to an increase in "Champagne et Fromage" shops. Its arbitrary. As its arbitrary it needs a social explanation.

 

[SpamMisery]

Agreed. I'm sure it's far more nuanced, but an influx of people means the poorer areas become more attractive over time

 

[SpamMisery]

The shops simply follow the movement of people, not very often the other way round I would have thought; although oddities always occur

 

[leanderman]

The shops simply follow the movement of people, not very often the other way round I would have thought; although oddities always occur

Which is why we are being deluged by small outlets of the big supermarkets.

Lambeth has become the number one local authority for young-sharer households.

 

[Rushy]

Incorrect analysis. Shortage of housing does not automatically lead to "gentrification".

There is no shortage of housing for the rich. Take houses I see in Mayfair for example. They are left empty for a lot of the time.

Little affordable housing has been built in London for years.

There is quite a lot going on between Mayfair and new affordable housing.

 

[snowy_again]

I walk past the coldharbour lane entrance to the village on my way home every night - and rarely if ever have I seen such a homogenous gathering of people as those clogging the tables outside. It's like Being John Malkovich, except everyone is Teuchter.

These sort of posts are exactly why I don't really want to meet you lot in real life.

What did you really intend with the last sentence apart from a puerile dig?

 

[boohoo]

I hear a lot of concerns from Council tenants that Council as it was will go within ten years times. The Lambeth Council tenants had to lobby (Labour) administration hard to stop them using time limited tenancies instead of secure tenancies.

The Labour Council is still pushing every now and then for Council estates to vote to transfer out of Council control. One recently at Cowley estate looks like its been knocked back.

If a Labour government gets into power will it protect Council housing? After all the last Labour government brought in ALMOS. Which Council tenants widely saw as first step towards getting rid of Council housing.

As for RSLs/ Housing Associations. Some are starting to use the new "affordable" rents (up to 80% market rent). I know for a fact that at least one RSL in Brixton area is bringing in the new time limited tenancies.

If another Tory government is elected with a new Tory Mayor of London I doubt that social housing as its been known since post WW2 will exist for much longer.

My parents place is an LA transfer to RSL and it's interesting how the RSL are making more things the responsibility of the tenants. Hilariously they tried to charge my parents a service charge for communal space - which hadn't happened for the last 35 years. I suggested my mum sent them a bill for 35 years of gardening.

In an ideal world social housing should be for whoever wants it and for a life time, however as demand has become high, the RSL/LA are rethinking their models - if this means new time limited tenancies so that more people have the chance of benefiting from a low rent for a period in their life until they have set them self up, then so be it. I prefer this to the "affordable rents" options.

And being guaranteed somewhere to live over a long period through some social housing provider is better than the uncertainty of being in private rented.

 

[shifting gears]

And I feel likewise.

A puerile dig was exactly the aim - it's exactly his MO here: see his own recent puerile dig which generated pages and pages of the same old shit. Look forward to not meeting you in the near future!

These sort of posts are exactly why I don't really want to meet you lot in real life.

What did you really intend with the last sentence apart from a puerile dig?

 

[Crispy]

Incorrect analysis. Shortage of housing does not automatically lead to "gentrification".

...

This did not have to happen. Economic forces were let rip in 80s onwards. It was left to the "free" market.

You're entirely right, and my post was incredibly simplistic. I just couldn't be bothered to ggogle image search Thatcher, Tower block demolitions and guffawing bankers. This situation was avoidable.

The village is still a symptom, mind you.

 

[editor]

The village is still a symptom, mind you.

I think it's more than that. I think it was a key element to the gentrification of Brixton.

Its highly-reviewed restaurants and quirky stores featured VERY prominently in the publicity material of every upmarket new build in Brixton and played a big part in calming the nerves of hesitant investors and reassuring them that it was a safe and cool place to place. I don't think it was coincidental that the development mock ups and publicity shots showed a vastly disproportionate amount of white people strolling through the happy clappy village and along Coldharbour Lane.

Prior to the Village's gentrification, Brixton rarely got positive press. The Village changed that and open the floodgates.

 

[el-ahrairah]

i think that if you're a social housing tenant in london the assumption that they have to rehouse you (let alone rehouse you locally) if they redevelop your block is increasing a flawed one. we need to look at the heygate as the model for modern london social housing redevelopment. if they decide to redevelop the barrier block, it WILL be to knock it down and build luxury flats on it and there WILL be no space for the current tenants. reading between the lines, it is clear that there is no place for social housing tenants or indeed social housing in the london borough of lambeth.

 

[Winot]

I think it's more than that. I think it was a key element to the gentrification of Brixton.

Its highly-reviewed restaurants and quirky stores featured VERY prominently in the publicity material of every upmarket new build in Brixton and played a big part in calming the nerves of hesitant investors and reassuring them that it was a safe and cool place to place. I don't think it was coincidental that the development mock ups and publicity shots showed a vastly disproportionate amount of white people strolling through the happy clappy village and along Coldharbour Lane.

Prior to the Village's gentrification, Brixton rarely got positive press. The Village changed that and open the floodgates.

So what do you think should have been done about the Village specifically, and by whom?

 

[elmpp]

I think it's more than that. I think it was a key element to the gentrification of Brixton.

Its highly-reviewed restaurants and quirky stores featured VERY prominently in the publicity material of every upmarket new build in Brixton and played a big part in calming the nerves of hesitant investors and reassuring them that it was a safe and cool place to place. I don't think it was coincidental that the development mock ups and publicity shots showed a vastly disproportionate amount of white people strolling through the happy clappy village and along Coldharbour Lane.

Prior to the Village's gentrification, Brixton rarely got positive press. The Village changed that and open the floodgates.

Not to mention inclusion in left-leaning listing websites also

 

[editor]

So what do you think should have been done about the Village specifically, and by whom?

I don't really know, to be honest. Probably not much because money always wins out in the end.

The market was listed on account of its West Indian/Caribbean heritage so I think more could have been done to protect that. You'd now be hard pressed to find much Caribbean influence on a Saturday night, and I think that's a shame.

Personally, I loved it when it started, when local traders and artists were given a chance to have a unit for a few months for free/low rent, but once they were elbowed out of the way as the cash tills started to ring, I started to lose interest.

 

[editor]

Not to mention inclusion in left-leaning listing websites also

Yes. That must have made a massive difference. Too big to measure probably.

 

[editor]

This looks interesting: William Shakespeare in Windrush Square as The National Theatre’s ‘Watch This Space Festival’ comes to Brixton today

 

[Biscuits]

When someone looks to buy they typically look at the areas that they can afford to live in and then pick their favourite. People I know who are in the same position as I was a few years ago are now looking (because of price rises) in Streatham, Mitcham and Colliers Wood. 10 years ago young professionals would have been able to have afforded Fulham, 5 years ago Clapham.

The problem is that in an ever increasing market when people move out of London to, for example, raise a family, they typically hold onto their London flat and rent it out. That causes prices to increase as the supply declines.

There should be a rapid and urgent building of council houses for all types of people – funded by heavy taxes on buy to lets.

 

[editor]

There should be a rapid and urgent building of council houses for all types of people – funded by heavy taxes on buy to lets.

Now you're talking. Tax those parasites hard.