High-rise regret

To The Times

Research indicating that conventionally built terraces could be constructed at similar densities to tower blocks and be as cost-effective, as well as being best for tenants, was available 50 years ago. I was then the Labour Party official responsible for housing and local government policy, and had already seen in Liverpool the adverse effects on families of high-rise living.

Horrified by the Labour government’s advocacy of tower blocks, I tried to persuade Dick Crossman MP, who was then minister for housing and local government, to look at the research, reconsider policies on slum clearance, stop advocating industrialised building methods and support conventionally built terraces instead. He was not interested, and his minister of state, Bob Mellish MP, was completely sold on precast concrete and tower blocks. How I wish they had listened. Ann Carlton, Pembrey, Carmarthenshire