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CABE was a review body and to have any meaning or value it had to have the authority to be heard and to have its views respected and followed. That authority could only have existed by being accepted by government at all levels and by the professions and the development and construction industries. It was important because there was no other body able to make judgements at a national level and without such an overview everything will be determined by local, parochial and probably financial criteria. That is no way to achieve high standards in the built environment. It is no surprise that there is no national strategy for urban development but it is a disaster which will make itself known quite soon. That there is no-one, no government body, no group, no quango, not even a group within the professions of a stature adequate to challenge policy let alone create policy is a failure of responsibility. OK CABE had no magic wand, was always open to criticism but make it better don't kill it off. It is now accepted that governments are too short sighted to solve the economic crisis and by the same token they are too short sighted to solve the crisis of where and how people should live and work.