Breaking up Communities?
Posted on 3 December 2012
One in seven of all homes found in big cities in England and Wales in 1955 had been demolished by 1985. ‘Slum clearance’ has been part of the history of a substantial minority of families, neighbourhoods and communities across the UK. Until the mid-1960s, clearance was generally seen as costly but essential and worthwhile.Then opinions began to change: demolition began to be seen as ineffective,expensive - and socially costly, because it 'broke up communities'.
What can we learnlooking back? How strong was the evidence for the idea that clearance broke up strong communities against the will of residents? Did things vary from place to place? And are there any similarities with more recent housing demolition?
On November 2nd 2012, the Centre for Housing Policy at the University of York hosted a study and information sharing day in central York. It was attended by a total of 40 people who were interested in the history of housing demolition, or who had been affected by demolition as a resident, activist, professional or academics.
Prof. Becky Tunstall of the Centre for Housing Policy and Dr. Stuart Lowe of the Deparmentof Social Work and Social Policy and the University of York presented the interim results of a new review of literature on slum clearance in England 1945-75 they had carried out, which aimed to explore the extent to which slum clearance ‘broke up communities’. This project was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, as part of its Connected Communities programme.
Nearly half of those who attended the day made short presentations sharing their experienceswith the group. There were also active discussions. Prof Tunstall has edited a report on the presentations and discussions that took place. Report (PDF 
, 3,533kb)