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This paper focuses on the spatial imprint and social impacts of the emerging geographies of concentrated overseas investment into London’s high-end real estate market, particularly the boroughs of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea. Framed by literatures on the 1% and the super-rich, and based on a mixed methodological approach of qualitative interviews with intermediaries and a quantitative mapping of overseas investors using 2011 census data, the results speak to the pervasive nature of “safe-haven” seeking in London real estate and its attendant transnational provenance set within a laissez-faire regulatory framework. In so doing, it makes an important contribution to the geographies of the super-rich, the class geographies of London, and the broader sense that overseas investors are producing what we call “pied-à-terre” urbanism which builds on a conventional gentrification framework (exclusionary displacement and a more affluent incoming group) but also exceeds it in several ways, leading to an increasingly socially attenuated landscape. This exceeding relates to: a different kind of rent gap, in that it is not speculative but safe-haven seeking, a guaranteed return on investment, and occurs without previous disinvestment; the agents are not traditional gentrifiers; the transnational nature of the process, with no attachment to particular places like in the traditional gentrification model; and a process focused on super-prime areas and completely independent of the existing gentrification process in London. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The London Development Agency (LDA) was established in July 2000 as part of the new Greater London Authority (GLA). It has a remit to work in partnership with local authorities, businesses, voluntary groups, regeneration partnerships and training institutions. This paper is a broad overview of selected issues related to regeneration management in London. The opening section provides a brief policy context leading to the formation of the LDA and its strategic agenda. Secondly, we argue for a local role in regeneration management. Third, we examine the creation of the LDA, its approach and offer a tentative assessment of the democratic principles leading to its formation and the content of its strategy. Fourth, we sketch local regeneration dynamics from three localities, before concluding with possible outcomes as the new institutional structure takes effect and also offer some suggestions on the linking up and democratization of local and regional processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the Coalition Government’s ‘Tech City’ proposals for East London. The Government wants to support the nascent tech cluster in East London, encourage inward investment, and develop the post-2012 Olympic Park into a high-tech hub. After examining the initiative in more detail, the article moves on to discuss why, and how, policy should support the development of high-tech industries in East London. It draws on location and cluster theory, the experience of initiatives to support high-tech clusters in other countries, and an examination of London’s existing strengths in order to suggest a realistic and evidence-based way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]