Deputy prime minister John Prescott’s plans to demolish hundreds of thousands of homes in northern England is facing a united local opposition. Residents whose homes are in line for demolition are joining forces to fight Prescott’s housing regeneration scheme. Groups from Liverpool, Lancashire, Hull, Oldham and Manchester have come together under the banner Houses Under Threat to mount a stronger opposition to the controversial plans. English Heritage chief executive, Simon Thurley, recently said: “We should move away from the idea that the problem is the housing rather than the people. To say that terrace housing causes problems is, to put a technical term on it, bollocks. Fulham, Chelsea or Bath have plenty of terrace housing and are not dysfunctional. It is a small number of families making life a misery for everyone else.” (Guardian)