Evening Standard: "Eric Pickles: Tear down estates to boost poor inner-city homes"

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"Plans to create hundreds of thousands of homes in inner London were unveiled today by the Government.

"A Big Bang approach will see old estates torn down and more families housed in new apartment blocks, making the heart of the capital more densely populated than it has been for decades.

" 'Past experience tells us that mere tinkering won’t work. We need to be more ambitious,' Communities Secretary Eric Pickles told the Evening Standard. Mr Pickles was today setting out for the first time how £150-million set aside in this year’s Budget may be used to speed up the regeneration of some of London’s most neglected estates. He envisages low-rise blocks that meet modern environmental standards being built on the sites of run-down areas like the notorious [sic] Aylesbury estate in south London.

"The number of people living in the inner zone of the capital could be increased by up to 850,000, according to an analysis carried out for the Government by estate agent Savills."