Life Bill Ralston

England’s capital and Auckland are like peas in a pod – when it comes to their problems.

Having arrived in London for the first time in more than a decade, I find it impossible not to notice the many changes. Although its economy still seems to be battling on with great extremes of wealth, homeless numbers are huge, the streets are congested to the point of gridlock and houses are astronomically priced – mainly as a result of rapacious foreign investors. Wait. That’s Auckland, isn’t it? Actually, the two cities do have a lot in common when it comes to their problems.

It is autumn and I spot many homeless wrapped in voluminous bedding in parks and doorways. Winter will soon drive them away, but where to? Their quest for money is constant.

I have a magnetic attraction for beggars. I pop out a pub door for a health-giving cigarette one evening and two men with delightful Caribbean accents pounce. Feeling in my pocket, I pull out a solitary £2 coin. “Can you share it?” I foolishly say. “Mine!” says one. “Gimme!” screams the other as they begin a rolling brawl on the footpath. “Probably best not to give at all,” says a passing young hipster.

We are staying cheaply in the East End’s scenic suburb of Dalston. A decade or so ago, it was the murder capital of Britain, run down and dangerous as hell. Now, spurred on by the capital injected into the nearby 2012 Olympics venue, it is regenerating with new and restored tenements, shops and bars. House prices are relatively low for London, and accommodation somewhat cheaper, so the new population of Dalston is young and hip mixed with an assortment of holdouts from the old days.

Closer to the Olympics site, Stratford (not the one of Shakespeare fame) has had 56% population growth since 2011 and property prices have risen nearly 50% over the same period. More Londoners now live east of Tower Bridge than to its west, and cultural and commercial developments have followed them. The population in the east is forecast to rise by more than 600,000 in the next 15 years.

This makes me wonder if, as Auckland intensifies in the south, there will be an eventual gentrification of areas we once regarded with a shudder as fetid slums. I think that is inevitable. Buy now in Otara and wait 15 years.

During weekdays, the streets of London are virtually impassable, cluttered with cars and trucks. There are more bike lanes and a corresponding increase in cyclists, but as the lanes eventually merge with traffic, it takes a hardy soul to pedal like the clappers as the double-deckers bear down.

The city’s saving grace is its public transport system, especially the Underground and overland rail systems – something that would gladden the heart of Len Brown. One consequence of the Tube and above-ground rail maps is the false geographic picture of London they paint, leading to total confusion when you exit a station and discover you’ve spent 20 minutes travelling a distance that might have taken half as long on foot.

In response to a cacophony of complaints from frustrated motorists, the Government and councils are ploughing billions into improving London’s roads. In New Zealand, that would incur the wrath of the Greens, but here it makes sense to balance the transport systems.

If Aucklanders take a somewhat apocalyptic view of the future, Londoners remain pretty positive. Perhaps that’s because of the city’s long history of growth and expansion despite being beset by numerous problems. Auckland could do with a bit of that Blitz spirit.

Feeling in my pocket, I pull out a solitary £2 coin. “Can you share it?” I foolishly say.