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Legacy for Whom? Housing in Post-Olympic East London

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London 2012 and the Post-Olympics City

Abstract

Watt and Bernstock examine the post–2012 Olympic Games’ housing legacy in the six East London Host Boroughs. Using quantitative, documentary and ethnographic data, this chapter builds upon previous research the authors have conducted in the period leading up to the Games. It examines a range of issues such as rents and house prices, provision of new dwellings, the East Village, the experiences of young people living in temporary housing in Newham and the increasing relocation – displacement – of homeless residents to temporary accommodation away from East London and even outside the city. The chapter casts doubt on how far an inclusive Olympics’ housing legacy has resulted for East Londoners and especially for those in the greatest housing needs.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See section on young people and note 3.

  2. 2.

    Paul Watt and Jacqueline Kennelly conducted three focus group and 12 semi-structured interviews with young people living at the Hostel in April 2013. These formed the final post-Games stage of a 2010–13 research project funded by a Standard Research Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada examining disadvantaged youth experiences of the 2010 Vancouver and 2012 London Olympics Games; Jacqueline Kennelly was Principal Investigator (Kennelly and Watt, 2011, 2012, Kennelly, 2016).

  3. 3.

    Paul Watt returned to the Hostel several times during 2014; this included interviewing a worker in September and five young people from August to December. The combined 2013–14 youth interviewees at the Hostel were aged 18–25 years, of mixed gender, and included a large proportion from BAME backgrounds as reflects Newham’s demographic profile.

  4. 4.

    Since summer 2014, Paul Watt has undertaken ethnographic research on both homelessness and housing activism in East London (Watt, 2016, 2017). This includes formal and informal interviews with homeless youth and adults who have been relocated away from their boroughs of origin to temporary accommodation outside of London with a focus on Welwyn Garden City and Basildon.

  5. 5.

    This table is an update of an earlier table (Bernstock, 2014: 81).

  6. 6.

    The worker was made redundant and eventually left. The Hostel was closed as a dedicated supported housing unit for youth in 2016.

  7. 7.

    LHA is ‘the regime for administering HB in the private rented sector’ (Powell, 2015: 321).

  8. 8.

    Paul Watt was one of the 11 objectors (Newham Recorder, 2016).

  9. 9.

    For example, the Host Boroughs Unit (2009) report contained five educational and six health and well-being indicators.

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Acknowledgements

Paul Watt’s 2014–17 research was funded by the School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy, Birkbeck, University of London. Thanks to all the interviewees who took part in the research, and to Phil Cohen, Debbie Humphry and Jacqueline Kennelly for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this chapter.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Birkbeck, University of London, London, England

    Paul Watt

  2. University of East London, London, England

    Penny Bernstock

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  1. Paul Watt
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  2. Penny Bernstock
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Correspondence to Paul Watt .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for East London Studies, University of East London, London, E 16, United Kingdom

    Phil Cohen

  2. Geography, Environment and Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Paul Watt

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Watt, P., Bernstock, P. (2017). Legacy for Whom? Housing in Post-Olympic East London. In: Cohen, P., Watt, P. (eds) London 2012 and the Post-Olympics City. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48947-0_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48947-0_4

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-48946-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-48947-0

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