Sink estate

A sink estate is a British term used for a council housing estate with high levels of social problems, particularly crime.
Origin.
The phrase came into usage in the 1980s, and was used by the Prime Minister, Tony Blair in 1998, when he referred to "so-called sink estates" in a speech, such as the (since demolished) Aylesbury Estate.
Writing in "The Guardian", Victoria Pinoncely argued that the term reinforced a sense of segregation and argued that "starved" would be a better term to describe estates that had been starved of investment in amenities, infrastructure and public spaces. She cited the regeneration of the Packington estate in Islington and the Ocean estate in Tower Hamlets as examples of how estates can be revitalised with increased public investment.
Crime.
Sink estates are often associated with crime and programmes to regenerate these estates include crime-reduction strategies, such as the below listed by the "New Statesman":
The poet Bryon Vincent has referred to himself as coming from a sink estate, and spoken about his experiences with being bullied whilst young, and later spells of drug addiction and homelessness. He has argued that locating people with social and fiscal problems in the same area is "an idiotic idea that is destined to create a culture of perpetually spirally criminality.
A 2014 report by the centre-right think tank Policy Exchange, "The Estate We're In", called on the Government to set up an "Estate Recovery Board" to tackle problems with gang crime, unemployment, truancy and domestic violence.