ABSTRACT
In the context of the urban renewal of residential areas, certain legal instruments and policy designations apply specifically to the property market. Only residential properties are subject to any statutory rent controls. Ownership through the freehold tenure of flatted properties or other multi-occupancy properties does exist but this is rare, and the legal arrangements to ensure, for example, that each proprietor is obliged to contribute to the maintenance of the common roof are complex and convoluted. This designation was established under the 1974 Housing Act to focus on areas where the dwellings were not necessarily conventional family houses, possibly in multi-occupancy, and where very low income households were to be found. Under the Local Government and Housing Act of 1989, General Improvement Areas and Housing Action Areas have been replaced by Housing Renewal Areas, although designations made before remain and continue to be known by the original terminology.
