INTRODUCTION

Demolishing existing housing stock in favour of building new homes results in loss of heritage and wastes carbon emissions embedded in otherwise sound structures, as well as breaking up existing communities. These criticisms have been levelled at the housing market renewal Pathfinder areas established within the UK government's Sustainable Communities Plan. Deciding how best to regenerate run-down urban areas and create sustainable communities therefore demands comparisons between the relative advantages of the two approaches to housing renewal – knock it down or do it up? Research by the College of Estate Management (CEM), Reading, sponsored by the BRE Trust and under the guidance of a steering group (John Burdett, BRE Trust, Tim Yates, BRE and Ashley Dabson, CEM) investigated the responses to this question by private and social housing developers and their professional advisers.