Local authority unlawfully demolished homes, says High Court

Gateshead Council unlawfully demolished 118 homes, the High Court has ruled.

The local authority carried out the demolition in the Bensham area after interim injunctions, obtained by Save Britain’s Heritage, were lifted by the court in December.

The demolitions were part of the controversial Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder scheme, initiated by the previous Government to clear areas of homes regarded as of low value.

SBH took legal action arguing that the scheme required an environmental impact assessment even though the previous Government had said it did not since a demolition did not constitute a ‘project’.

But the Court of Appeal ruled in March, in a case brought by SBH in Lancaster, that demolition could be covered by the EIA regime.

By that stage only 38 of the Gateshead homes were still standing but the council carried on and demolished the remaining homes.

Mr Justice Collins declared that the demolition was unlawful and awarded costs against the local authority.

SBH secretary William Palin said the case meant that other councils with similar demolition plans would have to “think very carefully about pre-emptive demolitions as the EIA may apply”.

Mr Palin said SBH became involved in the case because the homes concerned were good examples of ‘Tyneside Flats’, a style of home built in Victorian times with adjacent front doors and shared gardens that easily convert to single homes.

“Gateshead has a housing shortage yet it has knocked down good homes that were worth up to £20m in all,” he said.

Mark Smulian