demolition audit

The Pathfinder regeneration scheme is to be the subject of an official inquiry by the National Audit Office, after CPOs were approved for 1,000 homes in Liverpool.
Yesterday's Telegraph notes that by approving the orders, communities secretary Ruth Kelly has ignored opposition from the government's own advisors.
Some of the areas affected are still 80 per cent occupied, but as anti-demolition campaigner Cllr Steve Radford has noted, the CPOs were granted because no alternative was suggested by local people.
Dr Peter Brown, of Merseyside Civic Society, said: "People need to wake up to the alarming precedent this sets. A Pathfinder has unwittingly become an asset-stripper's charter, developing techniques which potentially leave nowhere safe from legalised land grab."