Housing Minister comments on tower blocks in fire safety debate

Kit Malthouse agreed in a parliamentary debate on fire safety that council tower blocks built in the 1960s and 1970s suffering from structural concerns should make way for low rise, high density developments.

Responding to a question in the House of Commons regarding the demolition of two blocks which have structural concerns and whether they should be replaced with a larger number of conventionally built homes Mr Malthouse said, “I agree that it is very often the case that buildings that we built in the 60’s and 70’s present more challenges to refurbish than they do to demolish and replace, and that in doing so, considering a different formulation – streets, squares, low-rise, high-density – may well be preferable to high-rise.”