Newham has seen highest level of gentrification in outer London, study says
Dr Halima Begum, chief executive of the Runnymede Trust, said regeneration should not come at the expense of ethnic minority working class communities. - Credit: Kois Miah
Newham has seen the highest level of gentrification of all outer-London boroughs, a study has found.
The average puts it at the top of 20 boroughs, according to a report from the Runnymede Trust and Centre for Labour and Social Studies (CLASS) published on Friday, May 28.
Ellie Mae O’Hagan, director of CLASS, said: "Whether we were born in London or moved here, most Londoners want to live in a city that belongs to everybody.
"But today, working class and ethnic minority Londoners are being pushed to the margins of the city."
The study is the result of a year-long research project which measured gentrification in the capital between 2010-2016.
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It asks how communities can be better protected when regeneration occurs.
Dr Halima Begum, chief executive of the Runnymede Trust, said "regeneration should not come at the expense of local" communities.
Areas coloured yellow and orange in this map of Newham are those which have seen more gentrification. - Credit: Runnymede Trust/CLASS
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The research finds Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and Newham gentrified the most out of all inner and outer London boroughs.
Ethnic minorities are the first to be impacted by changes, according to the report.
It also claims 35pc of black and ethnic minority people own their own homes in London, compared to 62pc of white people in the capital.
In addition, it found a threshold of 50 per cent affordable housing is regularly flouted with high-density, mega-developments built which would not gain approval if they were located elsewhere in London.
The study makes five recommendations which its authors believe would protect communities in the face of regeneration.
These include rent controls; expanding community land trusts and securing a "right to return" for people living in estates undergoing regeneration.
Community land trusts (CLTs) are "set up and run by ordinary people to develop and manage homes", according to the National CLT Network.
The report's authors studied changes in the proportion of non-white residents; house prices; population movement and deprivation scores to calculate average gentrification levels per borough.
