If you, like me, have a mini-heart attack every time you buy a pint in London, then you will understand how costly the city has become. The fact a London salary or student loan is different to the rest of the country shows just how significant the cost of living crisis is.
Whilst most major cities will always be expensive, house prices in London are incredibly high for tiny spaces and poor quality, forcing people on lower incomes to move out of the city altogether! So how did London get to this point? Well, it’s all down to something called gentrification.
Gentrification is a process of urban renewal and redevelopment that often occurs in cities, where typically low-income and minority neighbourhoods transform into higher-value, more desirable areas.
Although regenerating deprived areas seems positive, gentrification has devastated the lives of the working classes and people of colour. Gentrification has brought wealthier people into their neighbourhoods, pricing them out and forcing people to move away from their homes and support networks. Before we discuss the impact of gentrification further, let’s look at how and why it occurred in the first place.
London Before Gentrification
London’s vibrancy has always been down to the fact it is a melting pot of cultures and traditions, with waves of immigrants bringing new ideas and industries to the city over the centuries.
However, areas such as the East End, Hackney and Brixton were also heavily affected by poverty, crime and a lack of investment. Politicians had neglected these areas, which often needed better housing and services. London was a divided city during this time, with the wealthy living in the West and the poorer people in the East. Yet, as the millennium dawned, this began to change.
How and Why Gentrification Happened
The 1990s saw an economic boom which triggered a massive influx of people looking for job opportunities in the city, the knock-on effect of this increasing demand for housing. As a result, this pushed prices up and led to a shortage of affordable homes.
Alongside this, the government encouraged regeneration projects to revitalise neglected areas, such as the East End of London. The government encouraged people to move into these areas and create new jobs and businesses.
As these areas began to develop, they attracted new professionals working in London due to the affordable nature of the homes in that area. This increased demand saw house prices and rents rise in these former working-class neighbourhoods, with an additional introduction of new businesses, restaurants and bars to suit these often white demographics. As a result, the original inhabitants were priced out and forced to move to different areas.
The Impact of Gentrification
Gentrification has had a range of negative impacts on London’s population, including the displacement of low-income and minority communities. As property values rise and gentrification takes hold, many Londoners find themselves unable to afford rent or mortgages in their neighbourhoods, forcing them to relocate to other parts of the city or country.
Tension can also build between newly arrived gentrifiers and existing residents, especially when the newcomers are of a different racial or ethnic background. Wealthier white residents moving to these areas creates more demand for businesses that reflect their tastes, such as expensive craft beer or artisan coffee shops.
Rents for businesses, similar to houses, also increased, forcing smaller companies catering to working-class communities to close as they could no longer afford their rent. Instead, wealthier businesses or chains are replacing outlets that once served the local community’s needs.
A white middle-class community thus installed itself, eradicating the culture the working classes and people of colour had created for themselves over centuries. In addition, gentrification can lead to increased racial segregation in London, with affluent areas primarily consisting of wealthy white people. Thus, people of colour are forced into cheaper housing in more deprived areas-usually due to racial discrimination in the labour market.
Increased prices in London also mean people turn to escorting or OnlyFans to make ends meet. Demand for these services has also increased as people cannot afford to go out much, forcing some to feel lonely and seek escorts in London
What seemed a way to improve some of London’s more deprived areas have forced people into further deprivation, away from all of their support networks. The same trend is starting to emerge in other major UK cities such as Manchester, pushing those who originally lived in the city centre further out of Greater Manchester.
A balance has to exist between improving the quality of people’s lives and leaving communities intact. Until then, the landscape and demographics of the UK will continue to shift as investment harshly impacts communities that are important to people’s stability and happiness.
