This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/davehillblog/2014/oct/30/london-housing-crisis-seven-bright-ideas-from-islington

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
London housing crisis: seven bright ideas from Islington London housing crisis: seven bright ideas from Islington
(about 20 hours later)
The cluster of predicaments that make housing too expensive for so many Londoners manifests in Islington with striking clarity. The birthplace of Blairism, the home of Boris Johnson and the sixth most deprived local authority area in the UK, the borough is as trendy as it is pricey as it is poor.The cluster of predicaments that make housing too expensive for so many Londoners manifests in Islington with striking clarity. The birthplace of Blairism, the home of Boris Johnson and the sixth most deprived local authority area in the UK, the borough is as trendy as it is pricey as it is poor.
Like other inner London boroughs, Islington knows both the gains and the strains of gentrification. Indeed, it can claim to be the phenomenon’s spiritual home, the place where the lately deceased architect Harley Sherlock helped pioneer it by reviving neglected streets and sociologist Ruth Glass critiqued it. As London entered the 1980s, Upper Street, linking Highbury to the Angel by way of the Town Hall, was one of its most bohemian avenues, all alternative theatre, radical book shops and social deviants. I know all about those - I was one of them.Like other inner London boroughs, Islington knows both the gains and the strains of gentrification. Indeed, it can claim to be the phenomenon’s spiritual home, the place where the lately deceased architect Harley Sherlock helped pioneer it by reviving neglected streets and sociologist Ruth Glass critiqued it. As London entered the 1980s, Upper Street, linking Highbury to the Angel by way of the Town Hall, was one of its most bohemian avenues, all alternative theatre, radical book shops and social deviants. I know all about those - I was one of them.
Today, that counter culture has gone mainstream and upmarket, and the aging liberal middle classes who bought and did up dirt cheap terraces are, in property wealth terms, filthy rich. Their descendants have been priced out to Hackney and beyond. Where Islington meets the City, buying a two bedroom flat can set you back the best part of two million while renting one privately close to Arsenal FC costs around £400 a week. Yet Islington remains far more working class than its enduring Granita reputation might suggest. Some 40,000 of its 100,000 homes are for social rent though close to 4,000 of those are overcrowded.Today, that counter culture has gone mainstream and upmarket, and the aging liberal middle classes who bought and did up dirt cheap terraces are, in property wealth terms, filthy rich. Their descendants have been priced out to Hackney and beyond. Where Islington meets the City, buying a two bedroom flat can set you back the best part of two million while renting one privately close to Arsenal FC costs around £400 a week. Yet Islington remains far more working class than its enduring Granita reputation might suggest. Some 40,000 of its 100,000 homes are for social rent though close to 4,000 of those are overcrowded.
Councils have limited remedies for such housing ills, and those often entail uneasy trade-offs between ideals and financial realities. Islington, however, prides itself on finding ways to regulate the bad and encourage the good for the benefit of the borough and most of its residents. The Labour-run administration sees itself as a radical trailblazer from which other London boroughs and Labour nationally could learn. Here are some of its initiatives:Councils have limited remedies for such housing ills, and those often entail uneasy trade-offs between ideals and financial realities. Islington, however, prides itself on finding ways to regulate the bad and encourage the good for the benefit of the borough and most of its residents. The Labour-run administration sees itself as a radical trailblazer from which other London boroughs and Labour nationally could learn. Here are some of its initiatives:
On Wednesday, Ed Miliband tweeted a request for people’s thoughts about housing.On Wednesday, Ed Miliband tweeted a request for people’s thoughts about housing.
If he wants to mitigate some of the capital’s worst affordability problems, he could do worse than have a chat with Labour colleagues in the borough of Boris and Blair. If he wants to mitigate some of the capital’s worst affordability problems, he might do well to have a chat with Labour colleagues in the borough of Boris and Blair.