Do you think we are being ripped of in the regeneration process and anti poverty has become big buisness?

Question

Do you think we are being ripped of in the regeneration process and anti poverty has become big buisness?

Answer 1

from my own observations living in London, I think regeneration is the biggest rip off and lie out there. It is basically a way for the middle classes to buy cheap houses in rough neighborhoods and then entice the big money available for regeneration to come in, clean up the area, push house and rent prices up and force the previous (and usually poor) inhabitants out.

I am very cynical about regeneration. How can planners and designers actually know what real people want and how real people live. Those with the control of the regeneration process are normally posh public school idiots who have a very low opinion of poor and ethnic minority people living in the areas they want to regenerate. Regeneration is a farcicle lie so that middle class people have nice neighbourhoods to live in on the cheap.

Answer 2

Not so much your second point, but your first is bang on the mark.

There is no such thing as regeneration - you can't regenerate brick and metal the same way you would flesh.

You have to build on what you have, not make what you have look better.