CJNBlog

With the London Assembly consulting on this, and coincidentally with my own work, his has been a hot topic for me lately. Most people, it seems, when they hear "high street" think of shops. They lament that there are not enough of some types of shop and too many of other types of shop. They rehearse all the well-known and sometimes contradictory problems. Rent / business rates are too high. "They" should limit the number of [x] type of shop. Car parking should be free and plentiful There's too much motor traffic and consequent noise and pollution and so on. One person debating with me thinks gentrification is a good thing, but this is a working-class area and the council is seeking to regenerate without gentrifying, whilst may people think that regeneration is just gentrification in a thin disguise. They are against regeneration because they will be squeezed out by the increasing cost of housing and the decline in social housing stock that is the direct r