tower blocks matter!

Tower blocks are compact and high-density housing. They have the potential to develop strong and sustainable communities. Up and down the country there are inspiring examples, usually set by the residents themselves, of how they can be made good places to live.

Yet tower blocks have come to symbolise everything that went wrong with social housing in the UK, and are often linked to alienation, exclusion and the lowest quality of life. Well-publicised demolitions add to the impression of a form of housing on its way out.

Tower blocks in the UK provide homes for some 800,000 people. Many are in good condition, with residents who are happy to live there. But many others urgently need refurbishment and redevelopment if they are to continue to play a part in meeting housing needs in the UK.
And meeting housing needs is a key social policy issue for the UK. Forecasts of a need for 4.4 million new homes by 2016 makes that very clear. Campaigners oppose new housing on green-field sites, and where housing is built on rural land on the fringes of cities it adds to urban sprawl and deflects from the regeneration of the centres of those cities. One thing is clear - knocking down tower blocks in many parts of the UK will only increase pressure on housing and land.

We need to make tower blocks much better places to live. We need to do this so that:

• Those living in them can have a better quality of life;
  
• High-density housing can be seen to be an important part of our cities and towns;
  
• Tower blocks can fulfil their special potential to build more sustainable communities
  

The Sustainable Tower Blocks Initiative has been set up to address the need for a coherent strategy to improve the social and environmental sustainability of Britain's tower blocks. It has the following objectives:

• To find out and show how tower blocks can be better places to live:
  
• by identifying and disseminating good practice by residents and agencies;
  
• by helping run projects which develop successful approaches to transforming tower blocks.
  
• To influence the development of policies which support sustainable high-rise housing.
  
• To provide support and guidance to both residents and practitioners who are working to improve the quality of life in high-rise housing.