Demolishing council high-rise tower blocks would improve the lives of thousands of people, according to a new report from think tank Policy Exchange.
The report, Create Streets, argues that in London alone, the demolition of high-rise tower blocks could pave the way for 260,000 new homes such as low-rise flats and terraced housing.
The report also found that there are 140,000 households in the UK with children living on the second floor or above. Between 2003 and 2007, the number of high-rise buildings also increased seven fold, despite evidence they are expensive to build and maintain.
The report is calling on the Mayor’s office to remove super high density targets and commission a study into how many new homes could be delivered by redeveloping multi-storey estates into streets and houses. It also wants the proportion of social housing tenants with children living on upper floors to fall in line with the share of private tenants.
Author of the report, Nicholas Boys Smith, said: ‘It’s time we ripped down the mistakes of the past and started building proper streets where people want to live. We must not repeat mistakes by building housing which makes people’s lives a misery. Bulldozing the high rise tower blocks and no-go zone estates and replacing them with terraced homes and low rise flats is the best way to build both the number and the quality of homes that we need.
‘We call on neighbourhoods to have the confidence of their convictions, on landowners to look to their long term returns not short term density targets and on the Mayor’s Office to take advantage of the National Planning Policy Framework to rip up their super high density targets that, perversely, are discouraging development.’