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Rees on gentrification: ‘It’s not just a binary thing’
“Is it gentrification that supports the progress of the Green Party in racially diverse areas?”
That was the question that Marvin Rees posed in an interview with the Guardian after the ‘Green surge’ saw the Green Party gain as many councillors in City Hall as Labour.
Tackling gentrification was a key issue for Rees after he got elected as mayor in 2016.
is needed now More than ever
But a gentrification task force did not materialise and a promised report on gentrification was not completed.
A Freedom of Information request in 2020 revealed that the responsibility for reviewing the effects of gentrification have been passed to a number of bodies including the One City Economy Board and the City Centre Revitalisation Board.
In his fortnightly press conference, Bristol24/7 asked Rees the exact question that he had posed to the Guardian.
“That was a question and a suggestion all in one,” the mayor replied.
He added: “Clearly demographic change brings change. You see it on the doorstep. Votes are not just based on policy. I’d say, compared to the amount of noise around the election, there was more noise than there was policy…
“In some sense, a vote is a cultural expression as much as it is a policy expression.
“Clearly I think that gentrification is an issue, as is race. And gentrification brings up questions of race and class. And there’s some complexities in that as well.”
Rees said that people he knows voted for Green councillors but voted for him for mayor.
“While I think there is an element of gentrification supporting the Greens, it’s also the case that within that gentrification of certain areas there were also votes submitted putting me back in the mayoral team.
“So like a lot of these things, there are many different angles to it.”
Will Rees be focussing on gentrification during his second term as mayor?
The mayor said that it’s the artistic community who have already begun the process of gentrification who are often the ones who are able to raise their voices when they themselves are beginning to be pushed out of an area.
“The first wave of people to be gentrified are always the most voiceless…
“But the first people who raise the issue of gentrification most loudly are the people who have ushered in that gentrification. And I’m not blaming them…
“We’re seeing it around Stokes Croft, in Easton, around Montpelier and it’s happening around St Paul’s as well.
“So it happens in waves. It’s not just a binary thing.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
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