The Leasehold Problem In Saltley

The Birmingham project is in Saltley - one of the vulnerable middlering districts squashed between prosperous suburbs and the redeveloped inner core. Most houses were built modestly though solidly, towards the end of the last century and sold on 99-year leases. The landowner or freeholder retained the land and the houseowner or leaseholder rented it for a few pounds a year. Some leases have now expired, but the majority granted after 1875 will expire some time before the end of the century. When they do, the houses (as well as the land) revert back to the freeholder, and owner-occupiers become tenants. This system of land tenure is the core of a problem which had distressed many individual residents and contributed more generally to the area’s deterioration. The first half of this article sets out the dimensions of the leasehold system and looks in depth at the problems it creates. The second half describes how the project has responded.