It is a feeling that people in many communities across the UK can relate to. The feeling that the area in which they live is being 'poshed-up' or 'gentrified'.
In one neighbourhood it's got to the point, says one resident, where things are getting too posh. To use lifelong resident Andzelika's words, she used to be able to pop to the shops in her pyjamas.
But not anymore. The London area where she's always lived, South Acton, is being rebranded. Towers, once part of the council estate which stretched across the area, were pulled down, the empty sites that were left were covered up with hoardings bearing the name 'Acton Gardens'.
The name is ironic to people who've lived in the area for many years. The new blocks have actually seen the disappearance of green spaces like playgrounds and fields. Fields that Andzelika would play in with her friends as a child.
Now, Andzelika has opened up to MyLondon about the changes in the area. She said: "It started with them breaking the parks. [But it was] when people [who'd lived here a long time] started moving out and posh people started arriving things really started changing."
A decade since Ealing Council had its £800 million plan to redevelop the South Acton Estate approved, residents say the effects of the project have emerged. So far around half of the 2,100 homes in what was the biggest estate in the borough have been replaced, around half of which have been made available for social rent/shared ownership.
The local authority claims the scheme replaces all the genuinely affordable housing being demolished and, once the redevelopment is complete, will result in a net gain of approximately 200 socially rented homes. According to the council, more than two thirds of the secure tenants are choosing to stay.
But for people like Luse, who've spent their life in South Acton, the experience has been of a community breaking apart. She claims many people she has grown up with have been displaced, with lots moving away. For those who've remained, much higher service charges meant flats even at a 'social rent' level were still too expensive.
"Everyone had to move," she continued. "Some of these new-builds are quite expensive and most of them are privately owned. So the one where I live, it's four buildings and mine is the only council one."
Luse claims those buying into the area have changed the demographic from a working-class community of families into one dominated by young professionals. She continued: "South Acton didn't used to be posh. It has always been [a place for] people who've worked really hard for their money. Before all these new builds came, everyone was friends and knew each other. But it's not a family community anymore, the new people are just rude. They [mostly] are in their 30s and don't have kids."
There are physical barriers that separate these two groups as well. Council tenants and private owners have separate entrances. The communal areas of the leaseholder blocks are visibly better maintained than those in the social rent sections. When MyLondon visited one of these new builds we saw for ourselves the contrast between the damaged walls and broken CCTV on one side and the pristine appearance of the other.
'Newcomers are judgemental'
The long-time resident claims the newcomers don't just fail to integrate with the existing South Actonians, they are judgemental. "We're used to this being South Acton [a place where] we just dress how we want to. But then you see [these new residents] in their high heels, suits or gym outfits and they look at us like we're not there."
She added: "We used to be able to go to the corner shop in our pyjamas. But now it's like if I go Sainsbury's in my pyjamas people are just going to be staring at me. It's not acceptable. You're not allowed to do that anymore."
Luse claims one of the borough's most important community assets, the Bollo Brook Youth Centre, has come under fire because of the appearance of those who attend it. The West Londoner has gone to the project since she was a child and has seen first-hand the incredible work it does to provide a host of services for the area. One of these is the weekly food bank Luse has helped organise for the past two years.
But she has learned of complaints about loud music and littering she claims are baseless, driven by prejudice against the people who go there. "They see these people dressed up in tracksuits and think we're you know, not on the same level as them. They think we're some bad kids, drug dealers who play loud music and smoke weed," she added.
Back in 2019, residents started a petition in an attempt to have the youth centre transformed into a coffee shop. This prompted a number of users of the club to come forward and explain how the centre had improved and, in some cases, saved their lives.
The youth centre is one of the few old places to have survived the decades-long revamp of South Acton. Other establishments have not been so lucky, the small community convenience stores which used to line the bottom of the estate's blocks have all gone. Units have either been left vacant other than the few occupied by businesses that are more expensive and serve a small portion of the community.
"Everything is just empty," Luse added. "Right now they're making a gym, there's a unisex barber now, we have a small Sainsbury's and the GP, that's pretty much all we have. You have to go all the way to [Acton] High Street or Chiswick if you want to buy something. The corner shops we had used to be a lot cheaper, the Sainsbury's we have now is more expensive than Waitrose and Marks & Spencer."
Other residents MyLondon spoke to described the new builds as being like a "ghost town". They pointed out that while areas like Wembley or Hackney Wick have had new businesses sweep in that serve the 'gentrifiers', but offer little to the existing community, the changes in South Acton have been a removal of what little facilities were available to begin with.
'There was overwhelming support'
Responding to the issues raised in this article a council spokesperson said: "Ealing Council is delivering one of London's biggest council homebuilding programmes, with thousands of new socially rented homes being built around the borough. Acton Gardens is a key part of that work, and once completed in around 2027, it will host around 3,400 new homes, of which 1,250 will be socially let at rents within the means of local people on low incomes.
"There will be twice as many homes at the estate than before regeneration started, and almost a third more affordable housing, which is partly funded by the sale of other new homes. We are replacing the existing poor quality social housing with enough new homes to accommodate all existing residents who want to continue living on the estate.
"There will be more of the larger, family-sized homes which are in particularly short supply in Ealing. Retrofitting the old buildings was not an option, as many of them are at their end of their expected lifespan.
"The only way to make best use of the land available to us is to build new, fit-for-purpose, energy efficient buildings. We can only do this once we've moved the existing residents out of their old homes, with those who want to stay on the estate moving into their new homes at Acton Gardens.
"All Ealing Council regeneration schemes are subject to extensive consultation with local stakeholders, and a ballot of all qualifying residents. There was overwhelming support for the estate's redevelopment in the residents' ballot."
