<P> Slum upgrading is largely a government controlled, funded and run process, rather than a competitive market driven process . Krueckeberg and Paulsen note conflicting politics, government corruption and street violence in slum regularization process is part of the reality . Slum upgrading and tenure regularization also upgrade and regularize the slum bosses and political agendas, while threatening the influence and power of municipal officials and ministries . Slum upgrading does not address poverty, low paying jobs from informal economy, and other characteristics of slums . It is unclear whether slum upgrading can lead to long term sustainable improvement to slums . </P> <P> Urban infrastructure such as reliable high speed mass transit system, motorways / interstates, and public housing projects have been cited as responsible for the disappearance of major slums in the United States and Europe from the 1960s through 1970s . Charles Pearson argued in UK Parliament that mass transit would enable London to reduce slums and relocate slum dwellers . His proposal was initially rejected for lack of land and other reasons; but Pearson and others persisted with creative proposals such as building the mass transit under the major roads already in use and owned by the city . London Underground was born, and its expansion has been credited to reducing slums in respective cities (and to an extent, the New York City Subway's smaller expansion). </P> <P> As cities expanded and business parks scattered due to cost ineffectiveness, people moved to live in the suburbs; thus retail, logistics, house maintenance and other businesses followed demand patterns . City governments used infrastructure investments and urban planning to distribute work, housing, green areas, retail, schools and population densities . Affordable public mass transit in cities such as New York City, London and Paris allowed the poor to reach areas where they could earn a livelihood . Public and council housing projects cleared slums and provided more sanitary housing options than what existed before the 1950s . </P> <P> Slum clearance became a priority policy in Europe between 1950--1970s, and one of the biggest state - led programs . In the UK, the slum clearance effort was bigger in scale than the formation of British Railways, the National Health Service and other state programs . UK Government data suggests the clearances that took place after 1955 demolished about 1.5 million slum properties, resettling about 15% of UK's population out of these properties . Similarly, after 1950, Denmark and others pursued parallel initiatives to clear slums and resettle the slum residents . </P>

Visit a slum and find out their basic problems presentation of data