ABSTRACT
The government, in an attempt to slow the drift towards monopoly local authority landlords and extend choice to tenants, embraced the concept of a third tenure – something between private renting and local authorities. The private-rented sector was shrinking too fast and its decline had proved hard to stop. If older housing was structurally sound it became worth doing it up for owner-occupation. The process was called gentrification if better-off buyers moved into an area, forming a distinct identity alongside existing lower-income residents. Far from stemming the decline of private landlords they accelerated the process by enhancing values, fuelling the ever-growing demand for owner-occupation. From 1964, Improvement Areas offered government money to upgrade the environment of run-down, old areas, with improvement grants for owners to do up their houses. One outcome of the property speculation boom in owner-occupation and ‘winkling’ was renewed council intervention in ‘twilight’ areas, this time in the shape of Housing Action Areas.
