Registered social landlords, owners of social housing, are stretching the limits of the system to maximise their incomes through dealing with councils, who deal with private developers – running down areas to then capture the “marriage value”. Marriage value is the difference in value between the run down area and the value of the site cleared in anticipation of redevelopment. This is the economics that oils the financial cogs of Pathfinder. However, this additional “marriage value” surely belongs to those from whom the land is compulsorily purchased, not the RSLs.

The real winners here will be the house builders, who stand to gain from the compulsory purchase of people’s homes at artificially low prices (through the blight caused by the spectre of clearance) and redevelopment of more expensive housing, often out of reach of the displaced residents. Also cashing in on the bonanza are the consultants, on whom to date £168 million has been spent – enough to restore over 8000 terraced houses.