The 100 worst so-called sink estates in Britain are to be transformed or rebuilt entirely, the government has said.
Writing in the Sunday Times, prime minister David Cameron said many estates are badly designed and are havens for crime, meaning they also become mired in poverty as those with the means to do so "understandably" move away.
While past governments have seen such estates as simply a "problem" to be managed, he said a more ambitious plan is needed and announced £140 million will be spent on demolishing poor and badly-designed estates and replacing these homes with good, modern housing.
The government policy announcement has been timed to come just before the publication of research by Savills showing that revitalising the worst estates can help generate the building of hundreds of thousands of new homes.
Examples of estates that have been transformed in the past include Hulme in Manchester, where the concrete crescents built in the 1960s became a hotbed of crime and poverty.
These were pulled down in the 1990s and replaced with modern housing, supported by new roads, parks and other facilities.
