The Government has decided that Robin Hood Gardens estate, the grim London housing complex will not be listed.

It is now likely to be demolished.

Despite support for the listing from modernist architects including Richard Rogers, Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster and magazines such as Building Design, culture secretary Margaret Hodge, has decided that the East London estate designed by Alison and Peter Smithson, was not innovative.

"This has been a tough and finely-balanced case which has rightly been considered openly and with great care. I have received expert advice and opinion from a number of sources and was shown round the estate a few days ago to see it for myself, both inside and out.

"The architects' brief was to design a place fit for people to live, of course. But in that respect, I agree with my expert advisors English Heritage, that it simply doesn't work. When functional failures are fundamental, it raises questions about the architectural performance of the building and thus its claims to special interest.

"As well as this, features such as the stairwells and the boundary wall demonstrate the 'bleakness of design' that the experts have highlighted. Although I accept that it was designed by distinguished architects, I do not think that their reputation outweighs the evidence that Robin Hood Gardens was not innovative in terms of the 'streets-in-the-air' concept and it is not fit for purpose."