ABSTRACT
Gillian Tindall’s comments on the polarisation of the Inner London housing market published in New Society in 1973 have proved remarkably prescient. At that time private renting was still important but declining and it was possible to see at first hand the rapid expansion of gentrification and of new council estates, and the emergence of the housing tenure segregation she described. In the thirty years since she wrote it has become increasingly clear that, like Ruth Glass, she was fundamentally correct in her predictions. Like other global cities, London has become polarised into two distinct housing markets: on the one hand, the increasingly expensive market where prices are set at the top end by the demand from highly paid workers in finance, law and related areas, as well as the
international wealthy, and on the other, the council and social rented sector which houses most of those who cannot gain access to home ownership or high-cost private renting. The social divide between the tenures has grown rapidly since the 1960s, leading to the increasing social residualisation of council housing and an increased social polarisation between council tenants and homeowners.
