EVERY General Election has its buzzwords. Prominent this time is efficiency, the pledge by rival parties to stop the haemorrhaging of public funds. As ideologies draw ever closer, the edge each claims over the others is better management of the nation’s existing resources and systems.

Not often considered among those resources are our public buildings. Some modern post offices, job centres, clinics, hospitals even, are eyesores that belie the quality of the work being done inside them. They are poorly designed and weather badly in ill-chosen materials. These failures imply a meanness of spirit that drains the morale of both staff and outside beholders.

Our region does not suffer disproportionately, although Teesside has some shockers and cultural beacons like Durham and York are not immune, but the syndrome is exemplified just now at Newton Aycliffe. So rundown has the town’s large police station become, after only 38 years, it is to be demolished.

Durham’s chief constable says the design and construction has caused long-term problems and increasing dilapidation can no longer be contained by “patching up”.

Time was when the quality of public buildings reflected the aspirations and confidence of communities. The Victorian magnificence of Northern town halls is a byword. Banks (many of them now almost literally public buildings) were built to demand respect and to exude solidity. It is no surprise, and a reflection of the short-termism of today’s politicians, that this week’s manifestos barely mention our built environment.