Will London Lose Black Britons Vibrant Communities?

Actors perform during the opening ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics, including a mock-up of Empire Windrush. Photograph: Lee Jin-man/AP

Less than half of the UK’s Black population resides in London, the city has flourished into a financial hub with housing prices have hit the roof.

Born in London, it is all I’ve ever known, and I wouldn’t trade growing up in another city for anything. One favourite quality about living in London has been the diversity, which bursts to life in all boroughs across the city. Surrounded by beautiful hair textures and hypnotic flavourful cuisines. However, the UK’s capital has undeniably been struck by an affordability crisis, forcing many residents to move elsewhere. Amongst the most vulnerable residents is Britain's Black population with only less than half of Black residents living in London.

In recent years, social cleansing and gentrification have always been a concern for many, more of the British population are living in uncertainty. 

Labour had warned the public the cost-of-living crisis will affect low-income households which spend a great amount of their income on fuel and food. A recent study by the Runnymede Trust, a think-tank for race equality, found people from a minority ethnic background are disappointingly faster to fall into poverty 2.5 times more than their white counterparts. This issue needs to be addressed by our community leaders and governing bodies as there is a ripple effect that has racialised people around lack of support. As London’s affordability crisis pushes many away from the city, it leads to missed career opportunities for Black people, when the place is heavily reliant on them economically and culturally.

The question of race and poor-quality housing within the capital has come under great scrutiny since the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak from black mould in a rented Rochdale flat. Racial discrimination embedded in the housing system left many communities without a safety net. This comes at a cost for Black communities, who have had an impact culturally and socially in London’s scene, music genres, health service, and Notting Hill’s carnival. Black Britons have become bystanders of a new national identity that was confidently expressed in the 2012 London Olympic opening ceremony. 

“London has become successful because it has a reputation of being diverse,” stated King’s College London’s professor, Phil Hubbard. According to the Office for National Statistics, last year the capital rose by 0.9 per cent between the second and third quarters. The value of assets in the UK is primarily in London, which rocketed by £10 trillion, by far London is the richest region in the country. The separation between housing prices and a wage for the average Londoner has deepened with property values tripling over the last two decades. Black Britons are experiencing the greatest erosion in their community, Census data presents. The Western working class have been affected as housing policies changed, as a result, people are shuffled into places with no connections and lack access to their traditional comforts.

Samantha Burrowes has lived in south London her entire life, after both parents settled in 1960s England, she grew up with a youth club on the housing complex. Everyone’s children in the area would play together while parents sat on the front porch observing the green. “Throughout the last four decades, it has seen a great amount of change,” said Samantha, who now has her own family and reflects on the differences for the younger generations. “Forty years ago, Black Britons in their majority, were tenants in social housing. Racial discrimination played a major part in their acceptance of the security of owning their own home. In later years, this has changed.” But there’s still a long journey ahead for change, making sure people have the standard of a decent home standard, a requirement set by the government. For many Black millennials, their parents used metaphorical statements such as “money doesn’t grow on trees” This financial principle was even used in my Caribbean household. A conversation about money in communities is building better financial security and have started to see young black individuals becoming first-time buyers. "I think technology has a lot to do with the changes we are seeing, because we have investment apps now, like Nutmeg and Wealthsimple, where a lot of people can start investing with almost nothing," adds Eve Obasuyi, co-founder of Millennial Money Management platform Money Medics. 

Britain’s housing affordability shortage has inspired many to challenge traditional laws and practices and it can hopefully effectively address this long-term problem.