Elite Formation, Power and Space in Contemporary London

Abstract

In this article we examine elite formation in relation to money power within the city of London. Our primary aim is to consider the impact of the massive concentration of such power upon the city's political life, municipal and shared resources and social equity. We argue that objectives of city success have come to be identified and aligned with the presence of wealth elites while wider goals, of access to essential resources for citizens, have withered. A diverse national and global wealth-elite is drawn to a city with an almost unique cultural infrastructure, fiscal regime and ushering butler class of politicians. We consider how London is being made for money and the monied -in physical, political and cultural terms. We conclude that the conceptualization of elites as wealth and social power formations operating within urban spatial arenas is important for capturing the nature of new social divisions and changes.

Necrotecture: Lifeless Dwellings and London's Super‐Rich

“…The city's empty flats raise difficult and important political questions within a city in which residents of some London boroughs face a 50‐year wait for public housing. The imprint of wealth and the impact of money run deeply in the daily rhythms of the city as a political and economic machine, much to the detriment of its role as a social space (Atkinson et al ., ).…”

“…Meanwhile the rise of necrotectural forms associated with the wealthy and the relative absence of their owners may also be generating a threat to the social vitality of the wider city. This comes as a result of avoiding contributions to affordable housing and its role in generating a physical symbolic sense of the city being of and for capital and the wealthy (Atkinson et al ., ).…”

“…Flows of international capital have incentivized developers to target an international market of the wealthy and investors (Atkinson et al ., ). A distinctive feature of this market is that in many cases units are sold primarily as investments, often ‘off‐plan’, for the purpose of realizing future capital gains, occasional sojourns in the city or, in the case of much illicit investment, the concealment and recycling of funds via off‐shore investment funds.…”

“…The opulence and scale of the architectural landscape now being produced for the wealthy must also of course be linked to the ideological substrate of the city of which it is a part. The celebration of wealth, courting of the rich themselves and the influence on city politics of an urban economy dominated by finance and real estate interests is notable (Engelen et al ., ; Atkinson et al ., ). Spencer's () work on neoliberal architecture is also useful in helping us to think through the relationship between value commitments to market approaches, the celebration of unfettered social subjectivities and the eschewing of interest in social benefit.…”

“…The city has seen capital mobilized to provide for significant numbers of wealthy overseas buyers, even as it suffers an enduring housing crisis for the bulk of its population (Minton, ). Rounds of purchasing by cash‐rich buyers attracted to a city that continues to court capital and the wealthy (Atkinson et al ., ) have been evident for some years. Despite emerging signs of declining prices at the apex of the super‐prime property market, this has done little to staunch continuing flows of international investment capital and those ranks of the super‐rich already in the city (Atkinson et al ., ).…”