Prince Charles speaks out against cheap urban homes

Aug 10, 2005, 14:58 GMT

Britain's Prince Charles has spoken out against cheap urban homes, calling for new "human scale" houses.

In his latest swipe at post-war architecture, the heir to the British throne said he hoped lessons had been learned from the "disintegration" that followed the rise of tower blocks during the 1960s.

He cited his own urban village of Poundbury, near Dorchester, as an example of "human-centred" development, arguing that while it initially appeared expensive, it created much more value in the longer term.

The prince also said his model of sustainable development, which he began building in 1993, had helped improve social inclusion, reduce crime and lower traffic problems.

Speaking to the Shropshire Star newspaper in an interview at Highgrove, his Gloucestershire farm, the prince said: "I particularly resented watching the hearts of our towns and cities being torn out for comprehensive redevelopment.

"All right, at the time people said we had to build all these houses. But the trouble is all we have done is follow an ideological approach, forgetting about the real human-scale element in all of this. We have created something much more complicated and expensive in the long run."

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