Say hello to Barratt Homes' 'Brixton Square' on Coldharbour Lane (old Cooltan site)

[potential]

And I bet you don't even know why, you just assume council tenants = homogeneous mass.
A pity, becaue if you understood why Lambeth has such a high density of social housing, you might have a clue about why rapid demographic change in Lambeth is (and will continue to be) problematic.
lambeth has a higher amount of council properties because of ww11, hugh areas of land bombed and the germans, compulsory bought by the council. Then large council estates built. then the number of council tennants rose. areas change, get over it, brixton was prosperous, then not so. because of brixton proximity to the centre of london it is always going to be a desirable place to live.


Who objects to owner/occupiers? What people are objecting to is the concentration on owner/occupiers to the exclusion of others, in seeming contravention of planning statute.



Bully for you owning your own house!
Lets take a broader look at what, say, the last 20 years has brought to Brixton by way of money - an ever-changing parade of restaurants and clubs that benefit a minority of Brixtonians, and..?
Not a lot else. what have the romans ever done for us ??? yes those bloody shops selling bread and milk, ooohhhhh so terrible and those horrible restaurants, creating jobs, you have issues i would go and seek proffessional advice. 20 years ago brixton was the most crime ridden area of london, a no go area for alot of people sorry if your feeling nostalgic but brixton is better now than 20 years ago

Brixton is more than a nightlife location for a lot of us.

 

[Greebo]

massive quote of ViolentPanda's post

Wow, you were so impressed by that post that you quoted it in full and forgot to make your point. Which was???

 

[ViolentPanda]

What are you trying to say here?

 

[Gramsci]

What are you trying to say here?

Potential has got his comment mixed up with the quote. Easily done. I have done it. I went back to look at your original post this bit is different.

Not a lot else. what have the romans ever done for us ??? yes those bloody shops selling bread and milk, ooohhhhh so terrible and those horrible restaurants, creating jobs, you have issues i would go and seek proffessional advice. 20 years ago brixton was the most crime ridden area of london, a no go area for alot of people sorry if your feeling nostalgic but brixton is better now than 20 years ago

Potential is trying to say that you need professional help.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Potential has got his comment mixed up with the quote. Easily done. I have done it. I went back to look at your original post this bit is different.



Potential is trying to say that you need professional help.

Cheers for pointing that out. Hadn't noticed it. I suppose I'd better reply to him.

 

[quimcunx]

Not the Brixton I moved into 20 years ago.

It's me and Brixton's 20th anniversary this year!

 

[ViolentPanda]

Not a lot else.

Well, at least you're astute enough to have noticed that much.

what have the romans ever done for us ???

Yes, because what we're talking about is on the same level as arguing about what one civilisation has contributed to another, isn't it?
Get a clue!

yes those bloody shops selling bread and milk...

Grocery shops have existed here as long as there have been people. They're irrelevant to your (if it can be graced with the name) "argument".

...ooohhhhh so terrible and those horrible restaurants, creating jobs...

Are you sure about that? Restaurants don't tend to create more jobs than any other non-"one man band" retail outlet.

...you have issues i would go and seek proffessional advice.

Ah, you're a psychotherapist, are you? What are your qualifications, and which psychological society do you belong to? Maybe we're members of the same society!

What's that, you don't actually have any professional qualifications in psychology and are actually just some mug beating his gums? I'd never have guessed!

20 years ago brixton was the most crime ridden area of london...

No it wasn't. It's never been. That honour has always been held on the other side of the Thames.

Any more uninformed shit you want to spout?

a no go area for alot of people...

Only if you were an Evening Standard or Daily Mail reader and you believed their stories about not being able to walk along any Brixton road without getting buried under a scrum of black muggers.
Frankly, anyone ignorant enough to buy such stories deserves a slapping.

sorry if your feeling nostalgic but brixton is better now than 20 years ago

It's not "better", it's different.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Not the Brixton I moved into 20 years ago.

It's me and Brixton's 20th anniversary this year!

Congratulations!

 

[Manter]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/10/08/gentrificationphobia_.html
I saw this today- it is from the US (DC) but thought it was interesting all the same. Not saying Barratt homes are an improvement (!) but some of the discussion about desirability applies to Brixton

 

[teuchter]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/10/08/gentrificationphobia_.html
I saw this today- it is from the US (DC) but thought it was interesting all the same. Not saying Barratt homes are an improvement (!) but some of the discussion about desirability applies to Brixton

It seems to be partly based on a false premise that a load of chain restaurants etc make for a better quality of life. Setting aside the whole question of raising rents etc.

 

[Manter]

It seems to be partly based on a false premise that a load of chain restaurants etc make for a better quality of life. Setting aside the whole question of raising rents etc.

As an American exile, I'd do pretty much anything for a Chipotle.... But that aside..... I think he is using the restaurant example because that is what we all see and recognise as early stage gentrification- he does mention reduction in crime, improving schools etc too. And he is concerned by raising rents- that is his issue- that any changes in an area that make it more desirable (to whomever) pushes people out

 

[ViolentPanda]

As an American exile, I'd do pretty much anything for a Chipotle.... But that aside..... I think he is using the restaurant example because that is what we all see and recognise as early stage gentrification- he does mention reduction in crime, improving schools etc too. And he is concerned by raising rents- that is his issue- that any changes in an area that make it more desirable (to whomever) pushes people out

Exiled from or to?

 

[Manter]

Exiled from or to?

Brit who lived there and was sent home!

 

[Gramsci]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/10/08/gentrificationphobia_.html
I saw this today- it is from the US (DC) but thought it was interesting all the same. Not saying Barratt homes are an improvement (!) but some of the discussion about desirability applies to Brixton

If your city's politics is dominated by gentrificationphobia it becomes very difficult to make progress on any other concrete problem.

Back in 70s building a useful facility the the Rec was not considered to be gentrification because it also went with building affordable housing. Improvements to an area were about post war sense that a land should be built "fit for heroes".

Having good facilities should not be about "desirability". These facilities should be affordable for use of people of all backgrounds and incomes. An idea that is alien to USA. Wish that ideas from US did not have such prevalence here. Just because we share same language.

Over the last 30 years this country is becoming more like US where Capital comes first.

 

[DJWrongspeed]

I've seen a number of alarmist news reports recently about the lack of affordable housing. Quite relevant to this story we seem to be in some housing 'perfect storm' right now.
Another story here

 

[Kanda]

As an American exile, I'd do pretty much anything for a Chipotle

The chain restaurant? There's one in Soho.

http://www.chipotle.com/en-US/find/find.aspx?loc=w1F+0AX

 

[Manter]

The chain restaurant? There's one in Soho.

http://www.chipotle.com/en-US/find/find.aspx?loc=w1F+0AX

Really not the same over here- not sure why. Only one worth going to in London is Lupita (and wahaca in extremis, I suppose)

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Having good facilities should not be about "desirability". These facilities should be affordable for use of people of all backgrounds and incomes. An idea that is alien to USA. Wish that ideas from US did not have such prevalence here. Just because we share same language.

Over the last 30 years this country is becoming more like US where Capital comes first.

As an aside (but watch out for it over here - as you say certain people seem to love these American ideas) I read an article the other day about how in New York developers can get property tax rebates for residents to encourage the building of affordable houses (I suppose it makes them more saleable as a discount for residents seems an odd way to encourage developers). Except these are tradable. Entirely predictable result - they're now held by the residents of the most expensive buildings in Manhattan who pay massively reduced tax.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I've seen a number of alarmist news reports recently about the lack of affordable housing. Quite relevant to this story we seem to be in some housing 'perfect storm' right now.
Another story here

Some utter wankers in the "comments" section.

 

[leanderman]

Some utter wankers in the "comments" section.

True.

I don't like the state enriching landlords in St John's Wood though.

 

[Gramsci]

Some utter wankers in the "comments" section.

Yes but balanced by others who are ok. Some of the Guardian commentators really reveal themselves in comments.

I was in the reception of an office last week. The receptionist was chatting to the other one next to her. She was complaining that the house opposite to where she lived was a Council house with a large (according to her) family in it. She thought it was unfair that they could live there on what she said was a cheap rent. When her and her boyfriend paid full market rent. She thought they should be made to live somewhere else.

She said it was a nice area where she lived and people like "that" should not be allowed to live there on a "cheap" rent.

Depressing. Receptionist are basically working class jobs. Not that well paid. But she saw herself as better than people who lived in Council housing.

 

[editor]

Fuck, that is depressing.

 

[ViolentPanda]

True.

I don't like the state enriching landlords in St John's Wood though.

Exploitation happens everywhere. That people are reacting along the lines of "WTF are poor people doing, living in St. John's Wood?" (and we both know that St. John's Wood is interchangeable with any remotely-respectable locale) says a lot about how far government tropes about benefit claimants have penetrated the public consciousness.
As many say, cap rent, not housing benefit.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Yes but balanced by others who are ok. Some of the Guardian commentators really reveal themselves in comments.

I was in the reception of an office last week. The receptionist was chatting to the other one next to her. She was complaining that the house opposite to where she lived was a Council house with a large (according to her) family in it. She thought it was unfair that they could live there on what she said was a cheap rent. When her and her boyfriend paid full market rent. She thought they should be made to live somewhere else.

She said it was a nice area where she lived and people like "that" should not be allowed to live there on a "cheap" rent.

Depressing. Receptionist are basically working class jobs. Not that well paid. But she saw herself as better than people who lived in Council housing.

What a difference a generation makes, eh?

 

[Brixton Hatter]

Yeah it is very depressing - the Tory rhetoric on housing, supported by the Daily Mail and other parts of the right wing press, is being taken on by a lot of people. It's divide and rules tactics with neighbours pitted against neighbours, instead of people asking the bigger questions about the housing crisis.

 

[teuchter]

The idea of capping rent - how would that work in practice? Flat rate everywhere in London/UK?

 

[editor]

The idea of capping rent - how would that work in practice? Flat rate everywhere in London/UK?

Not sure about the exact mechanics, but something has to be done.

When I was on the dole it was utterly insane that a landlord could just make up any old inflated price for a shit flat safe in the knowledge that the government would pay it.

 

[teuchter]

Is the idea to cap rents just for places paid for with benefits, or to cap rents for everyone?

I don't see how it wouldn't just end up with everyone on housing benefit ending up in the cheapest parts of town. ie. not in St Johns Wood.

 

[Dan U]

Is the idea to cap rents just for places paid for with benefits, or to cap rents for everyone?

I don't see how it wouldn't just end up with everyone on housing benefit ending up in the cheapest parts of town. ie. not in St Johns Wood.

that is kind of what is happening anyway, with capping HB.

the idea of capping rents is to stop this idea of poor people live HERE and rich people live HERE.

 

[Gramsci]

The idea of capping rent - how would that work in practice? Flat rate everywhere in London/UK?

Years ago people who rented privately could have secure tenancies which were rent controlled. Its not like this is a new idea. Still happens in other parts of Europe.

Also post WW2 in part of USA. It was people like Milton Friedman who were against it and it controlled the market.

One way to have rent control is to only allow rent to be increased yearly by the CPI. Instead of now where the market rules.