Leader — A tale of two cities

‘A tale of two cities’ is the colloquialism du jour in urban politics – a Dickensian flourish employed to illustrate dire inequality. It’s an overused phrase for a reason.

It’s accurate.

It doesn’t take statistics to see that Hackney is richer than ever, and as poor as ever — a state of affairs property brochures euphemise as ‘mixed’.

Hackney is currently the 7th most deprived borough in the country according to the English Indices of Multiple Deprivation. Almost 2,000 households are in temporary accommodation for the homeless – 450 more than in 2012.

Meanwhile, ‘homillionaires’ are everywhere, with an eight-fold increase in owners of £1m properties in the borough since 2006–7, according to a new analysis by The Sunday Times.

Funding cuts have put the council on the wrong side of Hackney’s explosive growth, thrown into the scrum to fight the private rental market with the rest of us.

Forced into extreme pragmatism, boroughs have been called to arms for a long-awaited battle with the landlords. Councils are now refusing market rates in an effort to control spiralling spends on temporary accommodation they badly need – a high-risk move.

In this game of who-blinks-first, Hackney Council will either emerge victorious, having tamed an out-of-control relationship,  or come crawling back with its tail between its legs, asking for a viewing.

Here’s hoping it wins this battle, then the war.