Community, authenticity and newness: obscuring financial motivations in transport and development projects through discourse at Battersea Power Station

Abstract

Promotors of major urban ‘regeneration’ and transport projects create discourses that obscure underlying financial motivations for a development’s form and density by appropriating language of sustainability and community. In-depth interviews are carried out with key actors associated with the case study of the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area (VNEBOA), particularly its flagship development, Battersea Power Station. The analysis examines how the main discourses generated by the Greater London Authority, Mayor of London and the VNEBOA’s lead developer are rooted in ‘newness’, which aids in divorcing the Opportunity Area’s housing and employment projections from the immediate local area in which it is situated. ‘Placemaking’ is superficially used to justify the development’s form, which is driven by financial viability and profitability.