Jim Clarke Politics Show North West

It is one of most distinctive urban landscapes in Britain. Street after street of small red-brick terraced houses. You see them right across the North West, in Manchester, Liverpool and the Lancashire mill towns.

But while they might look great in a Hovis advert or a Lowry painting, they are less attractive in the windows of estate agents.

Many are vacant, the prices have collapsed. They are too small and there are too many of them.

The sense of decay and abandonment drags communities down. So what is the answer?

Urban renewal?

The government believes the way forward is large scale demolition.

Inner city boost Birmingham: �44m Manchester: �42m Liverpool: �40m Newham: �26m Hackney: �23m Bradford: �19.6m Sheffield: �19.1m Nottingham: �18.5m Doncaster: �17.8m Leeds: �16.8m

Thousands of these homes are earmarked for the bulldozer in the biggest housing renewal project since the sixties.

John Prescott has established "Pathfinder" projects right across the North and the Midlands.

In the North West they can be found in Manchester, Salford, Merseyside, Oldham and East Lancashire.

Communities opposed?

The plan is to flatten large areas of unwanted houses and replace them with a smaller number of homes offering a more attractive mixture of flats and larger houses.

The idea is that the housing market revives, people move in to the area, the local economy picks up further investment follows behind.

Sounds good, but the policy has become increasingly controversial.

Many communities don't want to see their area flattened by the wrecking ball.

Small campaign groups have been set up to fight the plans.

Establishment support

They have been supported in some cases by groups like English Heritage who are unhappy about the destruction of a distinctive urban landscape.

MPs - mostly Labour - have taken a bit of a hammering from angry constituents asking why homes cannot be refurbished rather than bulldozed.

Now there are signs that the government might be cooling on Pathfinder programmes and may be considering scaling back the demolition plans.

The Politics Show has been taking a look at the Pathfinder projects in East Lancashire where 82,000 homes are to be demolished or refurbished.

In towns like Burnley the average house price has dropped to �52,000 - less than half the national average. Something has to be done.

Politics Show

But is demolition the answer?

Our reporter Gill Dummigan has spoken to the people whose homes could be flattened and to the people who are charged with the job of trying to give the town a new future.

Have the Conservatives lost Mrs Bucket?

Also ... Jim Hancock will be taking a look at the by-election battle in Cheadle following the death of Patsy Calton.

In the 80s and 90s Cheadle, with its acres of red brick semis and leafy suburban streets, used to be a safe Tory seat. That is until the 2001 election.

The fact that they could not win it back in May 2005 illustrated the depth of their problems.

So why doesn't Hyacinth Bucket vote Tory any more?

We talk through that issue and other by election issues with the three main candidates.

So join Jim Hancock on Sunday, 10 July 2005 at 12.30pm, for the Politics Show on BBC One.

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