Teenage Green party candidate plans fight against ‘tragic’ effects of regeneration 

A teenager says he is taking his future into his own hands and standing as a candidate for the Green Party in a forthcoming by-election.

Ruben David Buendia, 19, from Southwark, is running in Southwark council’s Newington by-election on June 29, fighting for more social housing and against what he says are unaffordable regeneration schemes.

Mr Buendia said: “I love South London, it’s so unique. It’s a thriving cultural place that offers so much opportunity.”

He moved to the UK in 2018 from the Canary Islands with his mother who is from Columbia. They settled first in Peckham, then Bermondsey and then Elephant and Castle.

Mr Buendia said: “Elephant and Castle is a hub for Latin American people. The shopping centre in Elephant and Castle was always the place you went to if you were Latin American, but it’s changed a lot.

“Small Latin American businesses created the hub, but the centre has undergone a process of regeneration.

“Developers are knocking down buildings and small businesses can’t compete with multinational companies.

“It’s tragic, the shopping centre and the people who made the Elephant what it is are being displaced. So we moved out.”

The shopping centre in Elephant Road became a focus for Latin American and other migrant businesses from the 1990s onwards.

At its peak, at least 130 small independent businesses operated in the mall and the market surrounding it. 

Research by charity Latin Elephant found that a number of already vulnerable and marginalised groups were overrepresented among the traders at the time of regeneration.

The majority were of migrant or ethnically marginalised backgrounds and 40 per cent of the businesses were female-led.

The charity’s research from interviews with traders between 2020 to 2022 found that the regeneration of the shopping centre has had “devastating effects” on the traders.

Mr Buendia said: “Regeneration can be done if you take into account what people need.

“Many of these regeneration schemes are offering new ‘affordable housing,’ but affordable rent is 80 per cent of the market value and right now the market value is very high, so that’s not really affordable.

“Development companies can’t get away with this. There is no local economy if everyone is spending all their money on their rent.”

Mr Buendia is currently studying at St. Thomas the Apostle College in Hollydale Road, Nunhead, and also works as a teaching assistant for the Education Charity, Light Project Pro International, based in Watkinson Road, Islington.

He is also concerned about the mental health of his community after seeing the drastic decline in mental health after Covid.

He said: “Councils are in charge of parks. Access to green spaces makes your health better, that’s a fact.

“We need more of them and we need to maintain them properly for people who don’t have access to their own, private gardens.”

Mr Buendia grew up in a working class, immigrant family and because of this he feels he has a good understanding of what the people in his community need and how he can help. 

He said: “A big problem is immigrants don’t feel like they can get involved in politics, but we are the ones who are really affected by it.

“Having a voice that has gone through that in a community is very useful. Growing up I wasn’t happy with how things were, so I thought of trying to change it.” 

The by-election was announced when Labour councillor Alice Macdonald announced her resignation in May. She  plans to stand as a parliamentary candidate for Norwich North at the next general election.

The other candidates for the ward that Mr Buendia will be up against include Vikkas Aggarwal for the Liberal Democrats, Lewis Jack Allan Jones for the Conservative and Unionists and Youcef Hassaine for Labour.

Councillor Helen Dennis, cabinet member for new homes and sustainable development for Southwark council, said: “From the outset, the council has been clear that the redevelopment of the shopping centre should not be at the expense of Elephant and Castle’s vibrant and diverse culture, with both traders and wider communities benefiting from plans for the area.

“We undertook detailed equalities analyses ahead of planning to help mitigate the impact of the closure of the shopping centre on local traders and residents, and continue to monitor this impact as our continuing legal duty.”

Pictured top: Ruben David Buendia (Picture: Ruben David Buendia)