It’s not often that our local politics make the front pages of a national paper. But last month’s Guardian report that Camden council plans to move 761 poor families from London was the bad news that many who’ve been following the effects of the Welfare Reform Act thought was waiting to happen.
Of far less significance came the revelation shortly afterwards that one of Camden’s cultural icons, the Bull and Gate pub, was to be taken over by Young’s brewery, its famous live music venue closed to accommodate a bigger gastro pub.
And there has been the ongoing threat by developers to bulldoze the much loved and very traditional Golden Lion pub on Royal College St and turn it in to flats. The boozer’s safe for now, since the application was rejected earlier this month, but the developers will inevitably appeal. Just as they did with the poor old Crown & Goose.
Are any of these events linked? Do they really matter? It can’t be a coincidence. Regardless of which political party is responsible for this terrible state of affairs, or whether the Labour Council should do more to oppose Conservative/Lib Dem legislation, the sad reality is that what we like to think of our corner of North London is in fact increasingly exposed to the global market. Property is being driven up not by richer people competing from up the hill, but money made all over the world.
This means Camden was once a refuge for the poor and vulnerable, but now even people working are being forced to leave. Due to a combination of the UK’s economic crisis and a critically unbalanced global economy, at a doorstep level, people paid well above the UK’s national average will struggle to move in to Camden, or stay if they’re looking to expand to a bigger home. And for the people who really need help from our wider community, how long can Kentish Town welcome them?
The alternative, public investment, we are told is not possible “in times of austerity”. So if we are to somehow retain Camden’s diversity, what can be done? Camden needs more housing, but that shouldn’t mean bulldozing community institutions in historic buildings, like the Crown & Goose. It’s absurd that a music venue like the Bull and Gate, which creates so much cultural value, can be closed to allow a company to open up a larger restaurant space that will add nothing to the area.
What do Kentishtowners really think? If the Council bean-counters insist they’re forced in to cuts, and no developers are interested in what our community needs, is it time for a modest rise in Council taxes? A levy on collecting garden waste? Higher parking fees for larger vehicles (or second cars)?
Over to you.
Words: Tim Sowula
13 thoughts on “Why It Matters: the Kentish Town economy”
Of course, this is an absolute disgrace. Kentish Town and the surrounding areas have always been full of poorer immigrants and their families. Good stock. People with money lived in Highgate, Gospel Oak etc and most of the rest was left for us with decent Council housing. That is not the case now. Maggie started this trend and now we are reaping the rewards. This legislation will make it much worse for the working classes. The irony is that this has already happened because of money coming into the area. The wealthy who “want to live like common people” have already changed the area beyond belief.
I didn’t hear much noise from them when we were being forced to the outskirts because they want to feel they belong to the working class.
They were probably too busy fighting the devil that is Starbucks when the normal man couldn’t give two monkey’s.
London is already like Paris with the rich in the centre and the poorer on the outside.
I hate what this disgusting government is doing but remember to try and think what you did to help the situation when you moved there.
The funny thing is that the reason why you moved there doesn’t exist anymore.
Maybe you should find another “ghetto” to improve/destroy, make your dough and move back to The Cotswolds.
I wish this wasn’t so.
Interesting points Gerry, thanks. Personally I was born and brought up in Kentish Town and have lived here all my life so I didn’t have much choice about where I call home.
I am one of those “capitalist” types, but even I believe there is a massive issue with capital flows into London at the moment. A huge amount of cash is being invested in property here from countries all over the world – in particular, I have heard of lots of examples from China and Singapore. “Investors” are shown presentations of new builds and told about the “attractive yields”, after which they buy the property without ever having seen it in person. I have even heard examples of new builds where the majority of the flats are marketed to Asia before they are marketed in the UK.
This is a massive issue. It is driving up property prices exponentially and pricing Londoners out (there’s a one-bed in Camden going for £400k at the moment…. 400k?!?!?!?!). Anyone who has attempted to purchase a property in North London lately (me included) will have seen the complete and utter disconnect between the UK’s economic situation and property prices in the Camden / Kentish Town / Tufnell Park areas*. This situation will not improve until some capital controls are put in place so that speculators can’t just buy a load of properties to rent out.
Beijing has a huge housing crisis, and you have to have paid Beijing tax for five years before you can buy there (not Chinese tax, Beijing, so even Chinese folks from other regions can’t purchase for five years). On the other end of the political spectrum – have you ever tried buying a property in Manhattan? Whilst the controls here are more at the individual block of flats level, it is still difficult for speculators to invest.
Whilst neither of those above examples may be perfect – at least something is being done. There doesn’t even seem to be a discussion about it in London.
*The prices of complete houses have also been impacted by the opening of the CFBL – there is an horrifically overpriced house in Archway at the moment but the vendor has said “she knows if she waits long enough then a French family will buy it” (rage
Along with controls on buying property by foreign investors, there also needs to be some kind of capping on a percentage of private rents, too. I know that is very anti-capitalist, but you guys can’t always have it your way. 🙂
A good example of this is the Regent Canalside development by Camden Road Overground Station. Although an expensive and ‘luxury’ development, this is apparently half sold already, and it isn’t even half built. This must be speculators buying up these flats.
Yes, I agree re: Regent Canalside. How many mortgage companies will give a struggling Brit a mortgage for an off-plan development at the moment? I don’t have any data on this, but given the risks attached with off-plan, and the current requirements imposed on potential borrowers then I am guessing not that many of them would?
I’m in the process of composing one of those “strongly worded letter” type things to my MP and local councillor. If I could find out if FoI requests extended to house building companies (privately owned, but benefit from a public authority approval with regards to planning approval – so possibly could) then I would start asking them directly about the mix of their buyers. If a London Council really wanted to show it was taking London’s housing shortage seriously then it would demand that any new builds not only have a social housing element, but that they must also be marketed to UK residents (Londoners only? Too much?) for a set period. If they didn’t shift in that period then you would have proof that speculators are inflating the housing market. If a Londoner can’t afford a one bed in Camden for 400k then who is paying this?
(It’s not just flats of course. A four bed house was put on the market for £1.5m in Kentish Town recently, and I’m really tempted to knock on the door and ask the new owners “what the hell do you do for a living to be able to afford this, and why the hell would you pay that amount of money for something that doesn’t even have somewhere to park your car?”)
Crazily it is pretty hard to buy a four bedroomed house in Kentish Town for less than £1.5m – but it is the same elsewhere in London and KT does have the benefit of expert transport links and good primary schools which drive prices up. There is probably not much than can be done about market forces in terms of house prices but I agree with the points regarding private developers targeting overseas buyers and developing schemes that are of no benefit to the local community. Likewise the misplaced social engineering that is forcing families and children to relocate from London to other parts of the country.
Given the overheated London property market – how about an additional property tax on overseas investment buyers.
Under the new housing benefit regime a single person can get £250 a week in housing benefit. We all know this doesn’t go very far in camden but it is worth more than 60% of the take home pay of the average full time earner. Of course housing benefits for families are much higher.
Ultimately regardless of house building levels and competition from benefit claimants and oligarchs alike, only a limited number of people will ever be able to fit into nw5. The current system supports those claiming assistance very favourably when compared to what those who don’t receive support can afford.
The Council should not penalise all household and force them to pay more regardless of how much they need those services. They should start charging tenants and leaseholders directly for rubbish collection, while collecting recycling for free. Our neighbours (there are 4 households all together) still do not recycle anything, causing mile high piles of rubbish on top of 4 bins, which are never fully emptied because some lazy person/s didn’t bother using a bin bag, so rubbish collectors won’t empty it. We put out 1/2 bag of rubbish a week and fill 1 or 2 boxes of recycling plus a bag of paper, plus compost and do not get any reward/discount for it. More people might recycle if there was an incentive.
That’s a great idea but I fear it would result in an increase in fly-tipping etc.
The root of the issue is that council housing is for life, not current financial circumstances.
How can it be fair that someone can keep finite taxpayer-subsidised housing long after their personal circumstances justify it, forcing someone genuinely needy to live at the mercy of a rapacious private sector landlord?
Make council house entitlement run for set terms, and equitably eliminate the issue at a stroke.
Ultimately, I believe we need to wean our society from thinking about property chiefly as an economic asset, and think of it as a social asset. How would that change Camden/Kentish Town I wonder..?
Property prices have, indeed, risen dramatically. At the same time as a four-bed house in West London was worth £400 in the 1920s, a return bus fare to Liverpool Street Station was 3.5p.
Today, that same house has risen 99900% in value to about £400,000, while a return journey to central London has gone up 26757% to £9.40 cash fare on the Tube (they didn’t have Oyster cards in the 1920s).
This is because demand for housing far outstrips the supply of suitable properties all over London, while TfL has managed to keep pace with demand for peak-time transport.