Paul Watt is reader in Urban Studies at Birkbeck, University of London Dept of Geography. In this interview for Real Media he talks about municipalisation as a tool available for government to fight gentrification and discourage high rents. He contrasts the post-war municipalisation carried out by many Labour councils with the current trend for ‘accumulation through dispossession’ – a form of state-led gentrification that makes our cities harder and harder for low-paid workers to live in.