1985 Handsworth riots 1500 police officers drafted into the area, about 45 shops looted and burnt, and a trail of damage running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. As well as racial tension, unemployment was seen as a major factor in the riots; by the time of the riots, fewer than 5% of the black population to have left school that summer had found employment. The riots were the first of a series of similar riots across the country during the autumn of 1985, notably the Broadwater Farm riot in London which also resulted in a fatality (the murder of policeman Keith Blakelock).
Broadwater Farm the Department of the Environment concluded that the estate was of such poor quality that the only solution was demolition. While residents objected to conditions, some also opposed the demolition plan. Relations between the community and the local authority became increasingly confrontational. A process of redevelopment began in 1981, but it was hampered by a lack of funds and an increasingly negative public perception of the area. By the time that Alice Coleman's critique of 1960s planned housing, "Utopia on Trial" (1985), was published, the estate was regarded as being representative of unsuccessful large-scale social housing projects. When a major