Programme
Gentrification Is Class War: Demolitions, rent gaps and the real estate state
Kath Locke - Valerie
11.10.2025
10AM – 11:30AM
TWT25_032

The slow violence of gentrification and displacement is one of the great issues faced by the urban working class. As capital accumulation has come to increasingly rely on the investment in land and housing, and council housing and the welfare state are broken down, displacement, evictions and demolitions have come to characterise the lives of many in inner city areas. Resistance to gentrification is typically place-based and local. This panel will explore these questions and ask: how can we scale our organising and raise our demands to the level of general opposition to the real estate state?

Speakers

Abi is a sociologist researching stigma, local politics, urban government & political economy. She is a member of Liverpool Residents Action.

Caitlin is a planning law paralegal at the Southwark Law Centre working with community groups in Southwark including the 35% campaign and Aylesham Community Action Campaign. She previously worked as a senior housing policy officer at the GLA .

Joe Penny is the Associate Professor in Global Urbanism at the UCL Urban Laboratory and co-author of Disrupting the Speculative City (2025) a study of the community resistance to the Haringey Development Vehicle.

Andrew Roche is a tenant on the Lower Failinge estate in Rochdale, fighting RBH's plans for demolition and social cleansing of his estate. He is secretary of the Rochdale branch of GMTU.

Cáit is co-chair of the Galway branch of CATU. Since early 2025 the branch has been running a campaign against the impact of short-term lets in Galway city and in the Conamara Gaeltacht.

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