PARIS approved a series of measures yesterday to prevent la Londonisation of the French capital by encouraging small shops and key workers to stay in the city.

Butchers, bakers and greengrocers are among the trades that will benefit from the Local Urbanism Plan that will shape the development of Paris for the next 15 to 20 years.

The ruling Socialist group pointed to Inner London as an example of what the plan is intended to avoid — a place apparently abandoned by the middle classes to financiers and impoverished immigrants.

Although central Paris is a much smaller city, with just over 2 million residents, authorities say that it is far livelier because it has a dense and varied network of shops and people.

“I don’t want Paris to look like London, with a very wealthy population on one side and a very poor population on the other,” Jean-Yves Mano, the councillor in charge of housing policy, said.

“It is the social balance that makes Paris what it is.”

He hopes to nurture la mixité sociale through a requirement for developers to set aside 25 per cent of any project spanning more than 1,000 sq m for council housing in districts where there is little of it at present.

A majority of these flats will be reserved for those who are considered to be key workers — such as teachers, nurses, council employees and shopkeepers.

Critics say that these professions are rapidly being driven out of a city where many residents rent their homes, thereby endangering the social fabric.

They blame rent rises and the arrival of investors who buy up entire blocks and then sell the flats one by one.

With prices averaging €520,000 (£364,000) for a two-bedroom flat, the middle classes cannot afford to stay.

Bertrand Delanoe, the Mayor, says that he wants to create 4,500 council homes a year, mainly in the affluent arrondissements in West Paris which boast landmarks such as the Champs Elysées.

A new building is planned on a sports ground in Rue de la Fédération at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, for instance.

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