At a public meeting in 2005 Gateshead Deputy Leader Ian Mearns re-assured residents by telling them that if they owned a house worth £100,000 the council would be stupid to consider demolition.
A few months ago the council paid £114,000 for a house in order to demolish it. They defended their action by claiming that it was really two flats joined together so it wasn't really a house. Most people would interpret an building with an upstairs and a downstairs as a house - not Gateshead Council.
Not content with breaching the £100,000 barrier the council are heading towards the inevitable consequence of a vibrant housing market a £200,000 property. Without any sense of embarrassment the council want to buy a house with 2 bathrooms, 2 kitchens and 6 bedrooms. Once again they can excuse the sheer lunacy of demolition by the fact that this home is the result of knocking two homes into one.
The logic of demolition is to provide "family homes" built by millionaire property development firms. It is fair to ask Gateshead Council just how big these families are going to be if they can't fit into a place with 6 bedrooms! Renovation costs of just £20,000 - £30,000 per home could create more large homes from flats without the environmental impact of new build. So why waste £200,000 on demolition? The reason is the money. Most councils involved in the government pathfinder scheme want a share of the cash and they believe that only a sacrifice of some homes for demolition will get the money flowing from government.
Unfortunately for the taxpayer the rising housing market is leading to ever expensive purchase prices and ever increasing costs. Demolition makes even less financial sense today than it ever did.
Going back to the 2005 public meeting. Just who should feel stupid paying £200,000 of taxpayers money to demolish a home?
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