ABSTRACT
The present government is committed both to the development of the inner city and the growth of home ownership. One would therefore have expected that policies to help low income owner-occupiers would have formed a very important part of government housing strategy in inner areas. This chapter attempts to document this by showing how little financial help low income owner-occupiers receive. The chapter shows the impact of the present urban renewal policies on inner area buyers by taking three areas of inner Birmingham and a comparable area in Sandwell. The argument is not that owner-occupation is the right solution for low income families. The chapter shows how great an inconsistency there is between the government's stated intentions and the likely outcome of present policies. As a result, there is likely to be a fundamental conflict between the interests of owner occupiers as they see them and the implementation of current urban renewal policies, notably compulsory improvement.
