THOSE much maligned concrete tower blocks, once seen as the answer to the post-war housing crisis, could become listed buildings.

English Heritage today launched plans to retain at least some of them for future generations to consider.

It is a mind-blowing move.

Many local authorities, including Blackburn and Burnley, have been getting rid of them...and no one has argued.

English Heritage seem to think that because something is old it should be retained.

That is nonsense.

Today's planners and architects and, more importantly, the people who have had to live in them, agree that tower blocks were a mistake.

Some of the blocks listed by English Heritage are said to be uninhabitable.

Are they saying that families will be forced to live in them because they must be preserved for posterity on the grounds that they are old?

The welfare of those people is far more important than reserving a place in history for what amounted to a huge planning blunder.

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