In the name of progress, is Glasgow just becoming a boring city for students and bankers? asks columnist Marissa MacWhirter

From the best seat in the house on board a First Bus through Glasgow, I watched the east end become the west end. Through the grime of the second-floor window, as we crawled along, lurching through potholes - the five-mile journey taking more than an hour - I was struck by just how much has changed over the last decade.

Progress happens slowly and all at once. Because I typically walk or cycle or take the train, from the bus I saw the place with fresh eyes. And it was boring. Dull. As if a landlord had swooped in and painted the city that drab, safe, horrible grey colour.

There are not nearly enough cranes in Glasgow, but the ones that are here piece together, slab by concrete slab, beige brick by beige brick, tall buildings filled with tiny rooms for transient students. These value-engineered buildings, approved left, right and centre, were supposed to inspire more copy and paste urbanism, but this time in the form of build-to-rent accommodations.

To live in one of these shiny new furnished rentals, one must earn roughly £40,000 per year, nearly double what most people in the city earn (the mode income is about £25,000). Most of them are just for students, though, students who can afford to pay upwards of £1,000 per month. Average rents in Glasgow have gone up by nearly 66% in the last decade, and the average house price has increased by about 5.8% year-on-year. Nearly a fifth of the population here is income-deprived, a third of children live in poverty, and 44% of adults struggle to meet basic food and energy costs.

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