"Over the years, Battersea and the adjacent Nine Elms area was refashioned as a playground for oligarchs and other international elites. The US embassy arrived, a world-first glass sky pool was commissioned, and when Battersea power station shopping centre opened in 2022, it came with Rolex and Cartier stores, luxury private members' clubs and apartments with multimillion-pound price tags. The whole assembly looks like a Dubai waterfront, and for long-term locals a fear emerged of being forcibly displaced as occurred in Elephant and Castle"
"The residents of the housing estates surrounding Battersea power station in London, including the Patmore where I was raised, faced that prospect when, in 2012, a consortium of Malaysian investors bought the derelict power station, decommissioned since 1983, for 400m. Two years earlier, David Cameron had launched the Conservative manifesto in the ruined power station. He promised to increase foreign investment into the UK, and so the international investors came"
"Yet a quiet victory has occurred that shows how communities can bargain with developers. Last month, Battersea power station announced that it would be working in partnership with Wandsworth council to build 203 council homes as part of the development's 17-hectare (42-acre) master plan. This win is a genuinely radical vision of what local government can achieve. And it matters because it is a radical assertion that mixed-income communities should continue to exist, and be actively facilitated, in the centre of London."
International investors transformed Battersea and Nine Elms into a luxury precinct anchored by a redeveloped power station, embassy presence, and high-end retail and residences. The power station, decommissioned in 1983, was purchased in 2012 by a Malaysian consortium for £400m after a political push to attract foreign investment. Long-term residents feared forced displacement similar to other London regeneration projects, framing regeneration as social cleansing of working-class communities. Battersea power station and Wandsworth council will partner to deliver 203 council homes within a 17-hectare masterplan. The plan affirms the preservation and facilitation of mixed-income communities in central London.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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