ABSTRACT
The consultants aimed to look at the needs of the inner areas from the perspective of the people populating them. Urban efficiency, making all parts of the city work through reform rather than applying extra resources, was the central aim. It was the new Department of the Environment that now drove policy. With the moderate Peter Walker as Secretary of State, the Six Towns Studies, the bulk of which focused on the Inner Area Studies (IAS), became the flagship pilot project. Each IAS, he claimed, would focus on environmental problems and assess needs from the perspective of the people. The Guideline Studies were scheduled to take a few months and to report by April 1973, but the larger studies would take until 1976. With the Guidelines already largely dismissed as ineffectual, the IAS began its much larger task. The primary focus would be on housing policies, social facilities and social conditions.
