Regeneration programmes: Enforcing the right to housing or fostering gentrification? The example of Bankside in London

Abstract

The aim of any regeneration programme is to transform ruined and abandoned areas into new vibrant and attractive centres. However, this supposedly marvellous project often hides the drawback of pricing former residents out of their neighbourhood, thus fostering the process commonly named “gentrification”.This paper enquires whether regeneration programmes secure decent housing to everyone or they rather encourage gentrification. In order to address this question, the case study of the Bankside Regeneration Programme is examined through an unprecedented quantitative and qualitative ex-post analysis. It shows that, not only have social and urban inequalities remained unresolved, but they have also been exacerbated by the progressive enrichment of the area, which forced many of the vulnerable former residents to move to cheaper neighbourhoods.Subsequently, the paper zooms out from the results of this site-specific case study to a wider perspective, to identify effective approaches to reach genuine regeneration while avoiding gentrification.This paper offers empirical contribution to the study on gentrification through the analysis of the Bankside case study, methodological contribution through the development of a specifically tailored approach to investigate population changes, and theoretical contribution through the identification of the underlying dynamics and contextual contingencies that determine and explain gentrification.