ABSTRACT
Let us imagine a typical urban area in Britain. This urban area is an imaginary place, but one that includes a cross-section of the conditions and types of neighbourhood found in all British cities. It has neighbourhoods of high housing demand and a vibrant city centre. Equally, it has zones of industrial dereliction, depressed house prices and social deprivation. Likewise, this urban area possesses a full range of house types. It possesses nineteenth-century terraces and tenements, low density residential suburbs of varied dates, inner city ats that were built by the local council and privately developed city centre ats.
