LOS ANGELES: Regeneration in the past meant new kitchens, bathrooms, windows and an elevator that worked.
And if you said that, actually, you wanted to knock the whole lot down and rebuild it, but that elderly residents could live somewhere else for a while before returning to a spanking new flat, they’d probably reason that they were still getting a decent deal.
But if you said you were going to knock the whole lot down, evict the social tenants and use compulsory purchase orders to pressure owners into accepting derisory offers and renege on the promise to provide homes for residents to return to, while flogging as many flats as possible to the luxury end of the market – well, you might expect them to be a bit aggrieved, wouldn’t you?
But that is what regeneration now means…