THE demolition and forcible seizing of thousands of family homes is being driven by Whitehall to meet government targets for housebuilding, documents slipped out in the Commons over the summer break suggest.

Councils have been forced to sign contracts with government departments that require them to bulldoze or compulsorily purchase a certain number of properties each year or face having their funds cut.

Last year the government required town halls in the north of England and the Midlands to demolish or buy more than 4,000 houses, often razing Victorian terraces to the ground.

Last month council bosses in Salford — the constituency of Hazel Blears, the communities secretary who is responsible for the government’s housing programme — rejected plans to renovate local homes in favour of demolition.

Alistair Burt, shadow minister for communities, said: “It is now clear that with a stroke of a pen, bureaucrats in Whitehall are forcing the demolition of family homes across England.

“It is fundamentally wrong that councils are compelled to let rip with the wrecking ball, irrespective of local views, just to receive government handouts.”

The Pathfinder scheme was introduced by John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, as part of his plans to create hundreds of thousands of homes.

In order to meet the target of building 3m homes by 2020, thousands of family houses have to be demolished.

The government’s plan for the north of England suggests that 400,000 homes will need to be demolished in the next 15 years. It advocates “the need to accelerate the rate of stock clearance”, arguing that “changes should provide clear financial incentives to facilitate clearance rather than repair”.

Answers to new parliamentary questions slipped out during the recess have forced ministers to publish the contracts between Blears’s department and the Pathfinder consortiums, which include councils.

The documents state that a “grant is payable . . . on condition that the Pathfinder achieves the programme targets specified for that year”. The Department for Communities and Local Government can suspend, withhold, reduce or withdraw grants if the targets are not met.

The department said: “The government does not set or enforce any targets for demolition. Councils set their own regeneration targets.”

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