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Optional Enquiry 13: Inner Urban Improvement Areas

Document Cited authorities 2 Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorKeith Pugsley/Ken Miles
Pages159-160
Optional Enquiry 13: Inner Urban Improvement Areas

Has the local authority resolved to define the area as an improvement area under s. 4 of the Inner Urban Areas Act 1978?

This optional enquiry is concerned with improvement areas declared in inner urban areas under provisions contained in the Inner Urban Areas Act 1978. It is normally asked by the buyer of industrial or commercial property or a buyer who wishes to establish such a concern within an inner urban area.

The Inner Urban Areas Act 1978 introduced measures intended to deal with inner city decay. The measures are intended to attract new development to these areas by the offer of grants and loans to facilitate such development.

Districts may be designated under the Inner Urban Areas Act 1978 by the Secretary of State if it is considered that ‘special social need’ exists in an ‘inner urban area’ within that district, and that conditions could be alleviated by invoking the powers in the Act. The Secretary of State may designate by order the whole or any part of the district concerned, and the council for the district or county becomes the ‘designated district authority’.

Once designated, the council, as designated district authority, may make loans to persons to enable them to acquire land or carry out works if such acquisition or works would benefit the designated district. Loans of up to 90% of the value of the property to be purchased, or of the value of that property after the works have been carried out, may be made; these loans are secured by mortgages at rates of interest fixed by the Treasury, repayable over a maximum of 30 years.

A number of districts have been designated under the Inner Urban Areas Act 1978, including Barnsley, Burnley, Doncaster, Dudley, Greenwich, Hartlepool, Lewisham, Rotherham, Walsall and Wigan.

The district authority for each of the areas designated by the Secretary of State (generally, the district or county council for the area concerned) may declare an improvement area under section 4 of the Inner Urban Areas Act 1978 if satisfied that conditions within an area (which is predominantly industrial or commercial in nature) could be improved by the exercise of their powers to make grants and loans.

160 Enquiries of Local Authorities and Water Companies

The council, as designated district authority, must first pass a resolution declaring the area to be an improvement area, specifying a date on which the declaration is to take effect (at least 3 months after the date...

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