Whitechapel Road: Between Group Behaviour and Planning Policy

This chapter has examined the ways in which the policy makers’ ‘Non-decision making’ is reflected in the residential patterns of Whitechapel Road. A narrow spectrum of application, which also limits the economic considerations, together with the preference to refrain potential controversy arguments concerning state and religion issues, derives e policy-makers to the solution of a decision not to decide. By applying temporary and local arrangements in Whitechapel, this option allows policy-makers to avoid from taking clear-cut decisions in respect to conceivably ‘explosive’ issues, to refrain inter- and intra-institutional dispute, and provide them with the option to deal freely with other subjects which may be placed higher on the priorities issues of the council and of the public. The research extensive dataset has revealed the way in which, under Non-decision-making conditions, housing prices serve the process of creating and maintaining enclaves. The housing prices along the Sylheti enclave of Whitechapel Road are much lower than the prices of relatively same flats on the road and are drawn by flexible boundaries. The slope of prices on Whitechapel Road indicates a steep drop in prices, followed by a more moderate drop in the wake of the creation of an internal Sylheti housing market. Thus, the creation of an inner community housing market, different from its surroundings, improves the community’s ability to cope with the neighbourhood changes within a defined community space.