'Burglary would be the first problem. Here there is no access except by the front door and then they've got to get your things away. You' re a hundred percent sure that you' re not going to get burgled.'

'I moved here in 1963. I've enjoyed every minute of it, i like it being out of the way where it is. I don't think I'd like to live on the ground again. I haven't had any bad neighbours here. Everybody seems to help everybody else. The view is good.'

'I have been a council tenant for a long time and moved here from Edge Lane Drive 14 years ago. There was then a six-month waiting list for OMH which was the flag-ship of the high-rise blocks. I have been happy here ever since. It's quiet here, good society.'

'I am secure here more than I would be on the streets.'

'They're trying to bulldoze us because of our age. In the Council they'd say: "Give it five years [to do a repair] and the woman will be dead." Because most of us are old they think we're decrepit. One of the most difficult things is to move - all the doctors know that. Many of these people will die during the move. I don't want to move and will fight tooth and nail. You can operate as a community here. The entrance is a little community centre in itself. You've got friends. I've got I. and M. next door.'

Most LHAT tenants speak highly of their life in OMH, even though they may now be resigned to moving. The blocks have never had social problems, burglary is almost unknown and community feeling and neighbourliness has been strong. The blocks have provided excellent social housing and have outlived numerous disastrous schemes which were demolished within twenty years of occupation. They could go on doing so for decades to come.

16. "The age profile of existing and prospective tenants calls for specialist housing designed for older people and this cannot be accommodated in a tower block".

The great majority of older people do not live in specialist housing designed for them; do not want to; and do not need to. The ordinary community with its mix of age groups is the desired norm of all but a few percent of old people who need specialist housing on account of infirmity, disability, or extreme old age. LHAT has consistently exhibited an unpleasant and demeaning patronisation of its elderly tenants which saps their independence and dignity. Its desired housing is institutional and amounts to confining older people into ghettos separated from younger company. OMH was and continues to be excellent housing for the elderly. There are thousands of older people living in pre-1919 terraced housing, Fifties walk-ups and so on who would welcome the chance to live in OMH even in its present condition.

continued . . .