Some areas of inner cities were very run down by the 1990s. Often it was poor housing built in the 1960s and 70s that was to blame.
Nobody built tower blocks any more, and some councils started pulling them down, or knocking the tops off of higher buildings in order to make them nicer places to live in. This is called renovating. It did not happen everywhere, but at least it was a start.
The same was happening in city centres where shopping areas were being pedestrianised.
