THE Tories today accused ministers of forcing councils in the Midlands and North of England to demolish homes in order to qualify for lucrative grants 

Conservatives produced details of contracts drawn up with a series of councils which specify targets for 1,988 compulsory purchases and 2,155 demolitions in rundown areas which qualify for grants under the Government's "Pathfinder" scheme.

But the suggestion that local authorities were being forced into knocking down homes was dismissed as "codswallop" by the Department for Communities and Local Government, which said the targets were in fact set by the councils themselves.

Under the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder scheme introduced by former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, councils receive central government support for regeneration of rundown neighbourhoods by a mix of refurbishment, demolition and replacement.

Pressure

But Conservatives claimed that the newly-published contracts showed the Government was piling on too much pressure to knock homes down.

Tory local government and regeneration spokesman Alistair Burt said: "It is now clear that with a stroke of a pen, state bureaucrats in Whitehall are forcing the demolitions of family homes across England. Town halls which fail to meet the arbitrary targets for bulldozing or seizing homes face the threat of savage cuts to their funding.

"It is fundamentally wrong that councils are being compelled to let rip with the wrecking ball, irrespective of local views just to receive Government handouts. The sheer scale of these demolitions - including Victorian terraces - is environmentally, socially and financially wasteful."

But a DCLG spokesman responded: "These claims are complete codswallop. The Government does not set or enforce any targets for demolition.

"Councils set their own regeneration targets which are mainly to refurbish thousands of homes in addition to replacing a small limited number of unsuitable and abandoned properties.

"Councils have actually reduced their plans for demolition, and have been supported not penalised for doing so."

Since the start of the Pathfinder programme, 35,000 run-down homes have been refurbished or improved, four times as many houses as have been demolished, said the spokesman.

Less than 1% of housing in Pathfinder areas has been demolished, he added.

Councils affected by the contracts uncovered by the Tories include Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley in South Yorkshire; Manchester, Salford, Oldham and Rochdale in Greater Manchester; Sandwell and Birmingham in West Midlands; Gateshead and Newcastle on Tyneside; Kingston-upon-Hull; Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire Moorlands in Staffordshire; Liverpool, Sefton and Wirral on Merseyside; and Lancashire, Blackburn, Burnley, Hyndburn and Pendle in Lancashire.