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Professionals send Brixton property prices surging by 15%

Mrs Magpie said:
Well, there was a lot of this in social housing too in the 1980s under the GlC Mobility Scheme when hard-to-let flats were let to groups of young people. I was living in a tower block and very few flats above the fifth floor were occupied. It could be argued that gentrification happened when that scheme happened. I suddenly had one of a group of young actors knocking on the door asking if they could borrow a coffee filter.
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I've suggested many times on these (somewhat repetitious) threads that regeneration was propelled forward, if not actually started, by the GLC hard to let giveaway.

Not so sure that was gentrification. Maybe the dividing line isn't so great, but for me a bunch of people taking on a tenancy of a place that's lain empty for ages (and had been rejected by anybody with a choice) is qualitatively different from what I've seen in this street over the last decade or so. Which is people buying with the intention of selling, at a profit, in the not too distant future. Possibly having added 'value', in the form of an en-suite or something, possibly not.
 
I think that's true too. I don't think it was a bad thing that empty flats were filled. I found being a single woman with a child surrounded by boarded up flats very grim, but people who wouldn't have considered living in certain areas of London discovered that it was a really brilliant place to live. So I think it was part of Brixton suddenly being seen as a good place to live.
 
Indeed. It was, IMV, a political masterstroke which changed this area (and a lot of other parts of inner London) massively, and for the better.

That it took place more or less coincidentally with Thatchers council housing sell off simply emphasised the completely different vision.
 
leanderman said:
why has housing demand risen?
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Thatcher sold of all the stock. Right to buy is possibly the worst political decision ever. For right to buy to work, the profits should have been re-invested into housing, instead, it was used to bolster the economy. Councils didn't see that money.

Biggest fuck up EVER.

But the blame goes elsewhere... fucked up.
 
newbie said:
Indeed. It was, IMV, a political masterstroke which changed this area (and a lot of other parts of inner London) massively, and for the better.
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Well, I felt safer and met some really lively interesting people, some of whom I'm still in touch with although they moved away, had families. I think about 15 different people went through 'the actor's flat'.

newbie said:
That it took place more or less coincidentally with Thatchers council housing sell off simply emphasised the completely different vision.
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Agreed. That policy was a disaster. I don't like to see people who bought their houses demonised though. What was the wrongest thing was that the housing stock never got replaced, and look at the disaster we've got now. Our housing crisis is, I think, uniquely British.
 
Housing demand has risen so out of proportion because we have, aside from France, one of the most highly centralised state's in Europe.

Simple as.

Who really wants to contemplate living in Birmingham ffs, even if that was on the cards?

Birmingham, really?

The snobbery in u75 lives next door to the gentrification of Brixton. To deny otherwise is ludicrous.
 
Diamond said:
The snobbery in u75 lives next door to the gentrification of Brixton. To deny otherwise is ludicrous.
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What the fuck are you on about? How is is 'snobbery' to not want to see your neighbours and friends being priced out of their own area by the buy-to-let brigade?
 
leanderman said:
Why does right to buy increase demand for housing per se? Same people, same house.
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I don't think the overall demand for housing goes up by way of right to buy but there is less stock available to those wanting social housing via the council.

1. move areas, sell house rather than it going back to council hands
2. Die. Leave to relatives rather than it going back to council hands
3. Upsize or downsize. It is bought by private owner/landlord rather than going back to council hands.
 
True. But I can't get away from the idea that population growth matters. That, in the UK, London is the only show in town. And the city draws non-Brits too.
 
Diamond said:
Housing demand has risen so out of proportion because we have, aside from France, one of the most highly centralised state's in Europe.

Simple as.

Who really wants to contemplate living in Birmingham ffs, even if that was on the cards?

Birmingham, really?
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Well, me, as I posted a few posts ago.

I live in Birmingham. It's a good place. Do you know it at all?

We can afford to pay a mortgage on a house despite my partner being a student nurse and me looking after my children. We have time for eachother, family, friends. The world outside London is full of people who've lived in London, even come from London, and can't afford to live there. We're not unusual.

One of the problems is that people who live in London think they're interesting by virtue of living in an interesting city. But people are much the same everywhere, a mix of interesting and ordinary. Boring but true.
 
leanderman said:
True. But I can't get away from the idea that population growth matters. That, in the UK, London is the only show in town. And the city draws non-Brits too.
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Yes, think this is critical. Even where they have tried to move stuff out of London, you end up with one thing in each place, which disincentivises people to move. If you go and work for a bank in Leeds, or a manufacturing firm outside Manchester or a design consultancy in Birmingham you are often working for the only one of its kind in the city, so if you hate it or lose your job, you are in trouble. Plus, the costs in London are so insane, once you've left, you struggle to come back. And if you do jobs like mine you just have to be in London, as I can't nip over to Zurich one day, Paris the next and Moscow the week after from anywhere else in the country.

Maybe we should choose a second city and develop it as a complete entity, like they seem to have done on the continent. We do seem to be unique in venturing everything on London, so it has become a bit of a monster. A monster I love, but still...
 
lighterthief said:
I'd be curious to know how many posters on this thread were actually born and raised in Brixton.
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I was born outside London, as was my other half. Of the friends I spend most of my time with who live in London, none were born here, and 5 of the 8 were born abroad
 
Manter said:
Yes, think this is critical. Even where they have tried to move stuff out of London, you end up with one thing in each place, which disincentivises people to move. If you go and work for a bank in Leeds, or a manufacturing firm outside Manchester or a design consultancy in Birmingham you are often working for the only one of its kind in the city, so if you hate it or lose your job, you are in trouble. Plus, the costs in London are so insane, once you've left, you struggle to come back. And if you do jobs like mine you just have to be in London, as I can't nip over to Zurich one day, Paris the next and Moscow the week after from anywhere else in the country.

Maybe we should choose a second city and develop it as a complete entity, like they seem to have done on the continent. We do seem to be unique in venturing everything on London, so it has become a bit of a monster. A monster I love, but still...
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That's the dominance of the City in the economy. I mean, once upon a time, people made things in the UK. An awful lot of them were made in Birmingham.
 
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Red Cat said:
That's the dominance of the City in the economy. I mean, once upon a time, people made things in the UK. An awful lot of them were made in Birmingham.
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Don't think it's just the city- only one of my closest friends works in the city proper- it's everything 'professional. Arts, production design, pharmaceuticals, consulting, law, event management- they all revolve around London'. To just use one example, Travel abroad (to business hubs) is only really possible from London, so all the managerial jobs are here or nearby- most of my clients have huge manufacturing sites in the UK, which Senior management visit, but would never go and work at one long term, because how would they get to any other sites? So they stay in London.
 
Rushy said:
As you keep reminding him...:D
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Actually, he reminds me.... He is called the Northerner because he is a professional northerner. He admits that when he moved down he consciously decided to stay as northern as possible....

E2a- he kind of feels falling in love with me was a failure in his quest!
 
Manter said:
Don't think it's just the city- only one of my closest friends works in the city proper- it's everything 'professional. Arts, production design, pharmaceuticals, consulting, law, event management- they all revolve around London'. To just use one example, Travel abroad (to business hubs) is only really possible from London, so all the managerial jobs are here or nearby- most of my clients have huge manufacturing sites in the UK, which Senior management visit, but would never go and work at one long term, because how would they get to any other sites? So they stay in London.
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I'm not talking about the number of individuals working in the city but the dependency of the rest of the economy on the finance sector as a result of deregulation in the 80s and the decline of manufacturing in the rest of the UK.
 
Red Cat said:
I'm not talking about the number of individuals working in the city but the dependency of the rest of the economy on the finance sector as a result of deregulation in the 80s and the decline of manufacturing in the rest of the UK.
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But I am not sure that dependence on finance means we all have to be physically next to them, sort of standing over them.... There must be other factors at play
 
I guess the point being made is that many of those being so protectionist about Brixton are incomers themselves who brought their own 'ways' and economic impacts to the area. Whilst there are wider socio-political-economic arguments to be had, the generalisations and scaremongering about incomers is desperately ugly.
 
lighterthief said:
If you have the figures handy, why not? Don't you think there's an element of hypocrisy about incomers to Brixton complaining about other incomers to Brixton?
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Why is it hypocritical to be concerned about long term residents being priced out of their own neighbourhoods, and local shops being forced out of business by trendy incomers?

How long do you suggest someone has to live in an area before they're entitled to give a fuck about these things?
 
Rushy said:
I guess the point being made is that many of those being so protectionist about Brixton are incomers themselves who brought their own 'ways' and economic impacts to the area. Whilst there are wider socio-political-economic arguments to be had, the generalisations and scaremongering about incomers is desperately ugly.
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Could you give some examples of this 'desperately ugly scaremongering' here please?
 
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