Tower block alternatives

A think tank has said that high rise housing blocks should be bulldozed and replaced with houses in a bid to tackle social problems and "no go" areas. A Policy Exchange report said there was evidence that multi storey flats attracted higher crime rates.

Here are some of your views from today's Facebook discussion.

Residents of a London tower block have disagreed proposed plans to bulldoze high rise housing for a number of different reasons.

London's Mayor has backed an iniative suggesting that high-rise housing blocks should be bulldozed and replaced with terraced homes to help tackle social problems.

Calls for high-rise housing to be bulldozed have re-ignited a debate as old as the tower block itself. The London skyline is still populated with numerous examples dating back to the sixties.

The centre-right think tank Policy Exchange claims traditional terraced streets and low-rise flats could provide more than a quarter of a million new homes in the capital.

Theauthor of the Policy Exchange report Nicholas Boys Smith said: "It's timewe ripped down the mistakes of the past."

Butdevelopers have spotted a lucrative market in luxury high-rise apartments -think The Shard - which suggest a growing demand for a room- with-a-view.

Thatand the density of housing and shortage of space suggest the high-rise will bearound for a long time yet.

A think tank has said that high rise housing blocks should be bulldozed and replaced with houses in a bid to tackle social problems and "no go" areas. A Policy Exchange report said there was evidence that multi storey flats attracted higher crime rates.

Citing the example of the 2009 Camberwell Tower block fire in London, the report claims that the blocks can be 'occasionally lethal', encouraging 'more stress, mental health difficulties, neurosis and marriage breakdowns'.