Episode 9 The Housing Enforcers

Oh, my God!

The law says everyone has the right to a safe place to live.

I wouldn't ever envision anybody living like this.

But for thousands of people across the UK,

the reality can be more hovel than home.

The house was a death trap, at the end of the day.

-In the battle for decent housing...

-Leaving things, that's what happens.

That is totally unacceptable.

..it's local housing officers who are on the front line.

If somebody had have died here, you would have been

standing in Coroner's Court.

I'm Matt Allright and I'm back with the housing enforcers.

Oh!

-You all right?

-Yeah, good.

I'll be with them as they tackle problem properties

and slum conditions...

Faeces isn't the issue of...

Faeces is an issue, Glyn!

..as they deal with dodgy landlords, nightmare neighbours

and everything in between...

Oh, no! That's incredible!

..doing their best to help those in need of a happy and healthy home.

-Ain't it fabulous?

-Oh, Margaret, oh, Margaret.

Today - a dangerously overcrowded house puts lives at risk...

It really does look, as you say, shanty town.

Yeah, it's not up to standard.

..council tenants swap properties to find their perfect home...

-This will be the last move we do.

-Yes.

-Unless we win the lottery

and then we'll buy a place in Spain.

-The chances of that are slim.

-Very slim.

..housing officers face a serious case of insect infestation...

I think the mum and dad came in and the little baby came in,

and she was actually covered in bites.

-Have you got one?

-We've got snails, wasps and bedbugs.

I think one more and you've got a zoo, haven't you?

..and tempers flare over plans to tackle antisocial behaviour.

It's getting a bit more heated. I'll be honest with you.

I think Andrew's in a bit of a corner.

I've got to take action against people that are breaking

their tenancy conditions

and I've got to show I mean it, as well.

We might not always know it,

but there are people from every local council

whose job it is to make sure we have a safe roof over our heads.

I'm working alongside the men and the women who use the law

to make sure we don't live in slums,

but in homes fit to raise a family or enjoy our retirement.

They can make sure that you have the facilities you need

as you get older.

They have the power to start the process

that can send a bad landlord to prison or help evict a bad tenant.

They are the Housing Enforcers.

Oxford.

Not just a city of attractive architecture

and high-flying academics, it's also the most expensive place

to rent accommodation outside London,

which makes it really tough

for those people who need somewhere affordable to live.

I'm with housing officers Rebecca Jeffries and Adrian Chowns

checking up on a rented house where the landlord was prosecuted

for not licensing the property.

It also had serious maintenance problems

and no fire safety precautions.

Although the landlord has appointed a new managing agent,

he hasn't taken over running the property yet.

So as I understand it, if you've got a landlord that really failed,

is persistently non-compliant,

he's not helping himself or themselves,

then you can step in and say,

"Do you know what? We need to look after this property,"

and just make it everything that it needs to be by law.

That's effectively it.

We're going to look at the property today

just to see what is actually needed

at the property to improve it and make it safe

and a better standard for the tenants to live in.

There are currently 12 people, including four kids,

crammed into this four-bedroom house that's, well, ramshackle,

to say the least.

Look at the way this back part has been built.

Breeze block and then rapidly rendered

and then on the outside of that you've got plastic fascia.

It's damaged anyway, and, um... you know, looking at that

you'd be suspicious that any of it is watertight in any way.

Yeah, and I would say, well, it definitely doesn't meet

building regulations.

It's most likely not had planning

and if you look at the cladding,

you know, it's literally... that is the thickness of the wall.

It really does look, as you say, shanty town.

Yeah, it's not up to standard.

Which makes it all the more shocking

that there's someone living in it.

-Contract is rubbish.

-Right.

Promised a room for my family, yes?

Yep.

'Marta has come to the UK from Romania

'but despite having regular work as a cleaner for a large bank,

'this sub-standard lean-to is all she can afford.'

-Not electric, not electric.

-No electricity.

Not...congelator, frigider. Not internet, not...

Who's in this bed?

Is provizoriu...

un Romanian, this room.

Someone from there comes in and sleeps in here with you? A man?

Yeah.

A relative?

Are they a relative, brother, or...?

-No!

-Son? Or...different?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Yeah. OK.

So Marta pays £500 a month plus bills

and has to share a room with a man she doesn't even know!

If that wasn't bad enough, the conditions in here are appalling.

This door isn't... No close.

-So you have no lock on the door.

-Not close.

You have no heating in here,

you have no light bulb.

You can see daylight coming through in the corners

so if there's daylight,

that presumably means water possibly as well.

This has just been thrown up.

There's no lock on the door,

there's no fire safety on the door, kind of goes without saying.

But we've got an exposed wire here where there should be a light bulb.

The only source of heat...

This wall again, it's debatable, whether...

That's stud.

-Light, light.

-When you look at...

-That's your only light?

-This is illumination, light.

-That's all you've got?

We're going to look at the rest of the house now, Marta.

Thank you for talking to us.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

It's hard to imagine what it must be like

for Marta to live in these conditions,

and the high turnover of tenants must be especially unsettling.

This is the locked room

where supposedly there are four Romanian men staying

and they have a cat and a dog,

and I can't work out how big that room would be.

I have had access to this room before. It's very, very small.

It's about the size of a double mattress, so it's as wide as this.

-Seriously?

-It's very, very small.

And you've got four fully grown men living in there,

and sometimes that spills out and one of them stays in with her?

That's changed since I was here last,

so the occupancy just seems to be very fluid in this house

and it's very hard to know who's sleeping where.

'Without proper management,

'a property like this can quickly become

'an uncomfortable, overcrowded free-for-all and, worse,

'put tenants' safety at risk.'

So here we've got, there's no thumb catch on this, which means

that again, if there was a fire and people were trying to get out,

for security you'd want to shut it but doing that means,

-if you haven't got the key with you, you're not getting out.

-No.

'And the ceiling tiles are a real concern.'

These are just awful.

There's no fire-proof version of these, is there?

These are just standard '70s nightmare...

There's two issues with these. If these catch on fire,

you've got the issue of them melting and dripping on to you,

which would burn

and they also release toxic fumes.

-It sticks and burns, and then burns the...

-Yeah.

You know, when you've melted some plastic

and it drips. If you imagine that, it's like a shower.

'A shower of melting plastic doesn't bear thinking about.

'But those tiles are just one thing in a long list of problems

'with this place. From the simply shoddy...'

-All the light bulbs are missing.

-They've all been pulled.

'..to the unacceptable...'

That room doesn't have windows. That room is completely blocked in.

'..to the downright dangerous.'

Any children in this house, really, straight down there,

straight down the stairs and it's a good 10, 12-foot drop, isn't it?

'The broken banister is yet another example

'of how poor maintenance could prove lethal, and as for the kitchen...'

I mean, this is asking for a fire to happen in this place

because we've got a deep-fat fryer there,

we've got a cooker that's covered in grease anyway,

and then the main door through to the rest of the house

and to the stairwell,

there's no fire protection on that, there's no seals on it.

'I think we've seen enough for now.'

Well, I mean, we've got full notebooks, definitely.

There's enough in that place, really, to send shivers

up your spine from all sorts of different directions.

Yeah. Absolutely.

Another really abysmal house

that's being let to as many people

as you can possibly squeeze into its boundaries

and the thing, you know, you look at fire alarms

and you can look at bathrooms and leaks and all that stuff -

it doesn't mean anything until you meet someone like Marta

who is working her socks off

and is loving being in this country in every respect,

apart from the place that she's currently living

which is just taking advantage of her need to live somewhere.

It's not the sort of place...

I wouldn't keep my dog there, is the honest truth

and if we've done nothing else today,

we've hopefully started the process where that comes to an end for her.

Later, we'll be back to see if the new managing agent

has been able to turn the property around.

It has been a tough property to manage.

Certain occupants of the property are not happy with people

coming in and doing jobs inside the house.

Where we want to live and what we need from our homes

changes as our circumstances change.

In Suffolk, housing officer Ian Watson's on his way

to meet the tenants of two council properties

whose homes are no longer

meeting their needs.

But they've found a solution to the problem.

They're doing a straight swap.

We're just nipping over to Sudbury.

I've got a mutual exchange to do with a couple of tenants.

They're both Babergh District Council tenants.

One lives over in Long Melford in a flat

and the other one has got a house in Sudbury.

Known as a tenancy exchange,

many tenants living in council-owned or housing association properties

have the right to swap their home for one more suited to their needs,

as long as their council or housing association agrees.

They can mutually exchange from anywhere, erm, in the country

with any other social housing provider or any other council.

It doesn't cost them a penny.

We do all the paperwork and everything for 'em

and they then move off into the other house that they've chosen,

if they can find somebody else

in a similar position who wants to exchange.

To qualify for an exchange,

tenants must hold a secure or assured tenancy.

The council or housing association

have 42 days to approve or refuse a request to exchange.

Exchanges must be arranged by the tenants themselves.

Many people looking to swap

advertise on independent tenancy exchange websites,

as councils rarely have their own lists of tenants looking to move.

So finding someone to swap with can be the hardest part,

as Adam and Nina Wreford discovered

when they decided they needed to relocate

from their council house in Sudbury.

The process itself with Babergh has been very good.

The only downfall side

is when you start looking to try and mutual exchange,

to find the perfect property and to get the right person

who wants to exchange with you.

That is the bit that takes a long time.

And because their perfect property was four miles away

in the highly sought-after village of Long Melford,

the move really has been a long time coming.

We've been looking for six years, erm, but it's taken us

that long to find the ideal location for where we want to be,

which is closer to Nina's parents.

Her mum's not been very well and her dad's getting older.

It was good to be close to them to help them in their later life.

Once voted the seventh most desirable village in Britain,

it's no wonder homes here are in high demand.

But for tenant Alex Coombes, the location's far from ideal.

My issue is that I don't drive.

I'm moving because I want to be closer to my friends,

I've got family, my daughter's nursery, my work.

Just everywhere in that area is just where I want to be.

Alex's flat is only the third property

to come up for exchange in six years.

One tenant didn't want to move to the Wrefords' house in Sudbury

and another decided not to leave the village after all.

But now the couple's patience has finally paid off.

When this opportunity came up,

Alex was happy to exchange with us

and we were happy to exchange with Alex.

We're literally going to be 100 yards away from, erm,

Nina's family so it's ideal for us.

And, of course, like so many other people

who want to live in Long Melford, the move isn't only about

being on hand for Nina's parents.

It is the location.

For us, we'd much rather at this point in life

rather move into a village where it's a little bit quieter,

a little bit more relaxed. Isn't it?

Plus I was born there so I'd like to go back.

Yeah, plus Nina basically came from there.

So it's going back to where Nina's roots are.

But before anyone's going anywhere,

Ian needs to get everyone together to sign the paperwork

and make the swap official.

-Hello there. Sorry I'm late.

-Come in.

Sorry I'm late.

Right, let's see... Alex is here already.

-Yes.

-Let's get this show on the road, then, shall we?

You OK for me to go through?

With the application for the exchange approved,

both tenants need to sign what's known as a deed of assignment,

passing all rights and, just as importantly,

all responsibilities for their property to each other.

OK, firstly what I'm going to do,

I'm going to get you to sign your bits and pieces.

OK, lovely. That's that.

OK, now, Alex, got to do the same for yourself.

And once he's dotted the "I"s and crossed the "T"s,

it's the responsibilities Ian's keen to point out.

If either of you leaves any rubbish at the property,

you argue amongst yourselves.

Not with me.

Because at the end of the day, it's up to you to clear your own rubbish.

-Other than that - happy?

-Yep.

-Any problems, you know where I am.

-Yes.

-Apart from all the rubbish.

-Apart from rubbish!

-Cheers, then. Bye.

-Bye.

Forms signed, and with everyone quite clear

who's responsible for making sure nothing is left behind,

Ian's hopeful the move should run smoothly.

Both of the parties in there are very good,

very happy they're going to be moving.

In terms of it obviously one couple being nearer

to ill-health parents, so that'll make their life easier

and young Alex, it'll make it easier for her to get into work.

It's taken them six years, but now

they've secured their perfect home, in their perfect location,

Adam and Nina aren't planning

to go through the process again any time soon.

This will be the last move we do.

-Yes.

-Unless we win the lottery, and then we'll buy a place in Spain.

Then that will be different but you know,

-the chances of that are slim, so...

-Slim, very slim.

A few weeks later, now they're in,

the likelihood of them leaving seems even more remote.

Fantastic.

I have to say, best move we made.

Being closer to Nina's elderly parents happened

in just the nick of time.

It's been very handy,

because mother-in-law's recently broke her wrist,

so being so close, that was very useful, wasn't it?

Yes, it was, yes. Looked after her all the time, so...

After waiting patiently for so long,

the mutual exchange scheme's helped them finally find a home

exactly where they want to be.

I do like the village life.

I was fed up in the end of living in the town.

It's just so peaceful.

You know, when you've been working all day and you get up

so early to go to work,

by the time you actually get home, all you want to do sometimes

is just sit down, peace and quiet.

Chill out. And here we can do that.

-We're not going to move.

-No!

-We won't move again.

-I shall stay here.

-Yeah.

-I'm a Melford girl.

Melford born and bred, so I will be here till the dying day.

And back in their old house in Sudbury,

with friends, family and work right on the doorstep,

the swap couldn't have gone any better for Alex

and four-year-old Lacey either.

My daughter does like the new house.

She's quite happy and settled now in her new bedroom so it's great.

The process of the mutual exchange

was really quite good, and it all went pretty easily

so it's just generally all round better.

In Oxford, a landlord allowed 12 tenants to be crammed

into a ramshackle four-bedroomed property.

With housing officers Rebecca and Adrian,

we also unearthed a long list of health and safety concerns.

If these catch on fire, you've got the issue of them melting

and dripping on to you, which would burn,

and they also release toxic fumes.

To deal with the overcrowding and ensure it's safe to live in,

the council have insisted

the landlord appoint an agent to manage the property.

And a few weeks later, Rebecca's back to meet him.

Hiya, how are you doing?

I gave them a list of things that needed to be done urgently

so we're here today to check those.

Shall we start from the back and work our way forward?

I have brought the list with me.

Managing agent Idris has already begun making improvements

but it's an ongoing challenge.

It has been a tough property to manage.

Certain occupants of the property are not happy with people coming in

and doing jobs inside the house

so they keep telling us, "You can't touch my bedroom,

"you can't come inside my bedroom," so it's difficult.

There is some good news, though.

Marta, who was living in the lean-to,

has now moved in with her daughter in London

so no more sharing a bedroom with strange men.

The council are now re-licensing the property

to house just five tenants

but it's still vital

that any outstanding safety issues are tackled.

-One of the things was this door.

-Completely replaced.

-OK.

It has been replaced with the door with the thumb turn.

Brilliant. So you can get out really quickly in the event of a fire.

That's really good.

Idris has already brought in some essential equipment.

Bits and pieces you've done in here.

You've got the fire blanket and extinguisher.

But when it comes to fire safety,

Rebecca wants to ensure nothing has slipped through the net.

-You've had this door done as well?

-Yes.

Was this the door that was here already?

This was the door, yes.

OK, so you've done that.

There's a gap here between the actual door and the actual heat...

the expanding heat strip, um...

so that might make it not completely fireproof.

It might not seal, so I'm just going to take a few pictures

and get a second opinion on that.

It closes well, though, at least it self-closes and latches now.

Our inspection turned up some '70s ceiling tiles

that in a fire, could have melted

and given off lethal toxic fumes.

The polystyrene ceiling tiles, have they actually been removed?

Yes, they've been removed.

And that's been replaced with that. OK. Really good.

Again, if there's a fire in here, that means there's no danger

in the exit lobby of dripping ceiling tiles, so...

OK. Brilliant.

At the top of the stairs,

some missing banister spindles also presented a serious risk.

Thank goodness that's been done.

OK. No, that's really good.

OK.

It wasn't just children we were worried about with that hole -

it was anybody could have fallen down there, so that's good.

Really happy with the repairs that have been made here and the lock's

on the door so, from a fire safety point of view, it's really improved.

Inspection over,

all that remains now is to get the rest of the property up to scratch.

Going forward, once the property's vacant, we'll see a full refurbish.

-OK.

-It will be to a standard

where people can come in and enjoy the property.

Much better about the property now. Thank you very much.

-Thank you for meeting me. Thank you for your time.

-Thank you.

From an amenities perspective,

obviously there's a lot of work to be done

but, as Idris explained,

whilst there are the current occupants,

it's not possible at the moment

so they are going through proceedings to reduce the number

so that they can carry those works out.

Once that happens, then everyone will be happy.

And that hopefully means no-one will ever have to live

in the same unacceptable conditions that Marta did.

Every day, councils across the UK

receive complaints about antisocial behaviour.

But covering anything from dog fouling and littering

to noise pollution and crime,

exactly what qualifies as antisocial behaviour can be hard to pin down.

Whatever it is, antisocial behaviour

takes up a lot of council time.

In Suffolk, housing officer Andrew Weavers

has spent years handling all sort of complaints

from the residents of one particular street.

I've dealt with this road many, many times before.

Always had a bit of a reputation.

What kind of problems are we talking about?

Antisocial behaviour.

Children playing in the street,

people using their front gardens to socialise in,

parking - it's the whole shebang.

Some things we can do things about.

Some things we can't do things about.

We can't do anything about people socialising in their front gardens,

we can't do anything about children playing in the street

unless they're causing criminal damage.

'And there's the nub of the problem.

'What's perfectly acceptable behaviour to one person

'can seem totally unacceptable to someone else.'

These are the sort of things that actually are difficult

to take action on because there's no real laws against these things.

They are just the way people choose to live their lives,

which might rub up other people up the other way.

So what can you actually do?

We can talk to people about the way they look after their homes.

There might be somebody that's got rubbish in their garden

they can't be bothered, you know, to get rid of.

I'm there to tell people they've got to do it.

It sounds almost like "no more Mr Nice Guy".

We've tried everything,

so we might as well try, as you say, "no more Mr Nice Guy".

Let's give it back to the people that live in these houses

to deal with the problem.

'Today Andrew's joining forces with the local police,

'handing out a survey giving all the tenants a chance to have their say

'on the issues that plague the street

'and to say who they think is at fault.'

What we might get hit with today is, "Well, the council,

"they don't like coming down...

"This is what happens, they don't like coming down here,

"they don't clean the street often enough,

"the police never come down here,"

and this is why I've tried to bring the police in as well

so they can be on hand to, you know, we're putting them out there,

we're saying, "Right, if you're saying that the police never come

"down, here they are - you can have a little chat with them."

So that's where we are today. Looking forward to it?

-In a funny way.

-I'll be behind you.

Right behind?

-Right behind you. All the way.

-Thank you!

Once we get there,

I can see just how subjective

what constitutes antisocial behaviour can be

and the difficulty the council faces

deciding when to step in if there are complaints.

I'm getting the feeling

that this is maybe one that needs a bit of action.

Really, as much as it might be a little bit untidy,

there isn't really much enforcement action I could do.

It would be being judgmental

about the fact that you've got kids

and you're letting your kids play outside.

Well, if you're starting to do that...

-You know, let's stop now, shall we? Cos...

-Yeah, absolutely.

There's quite a lot of dog mess here.

Erm, so the dog mess is a problem but who...

whose is it? That's the thing.

Short of catching the dog and its owner in the act,

it's impossible to find out who's responsible

but Andrew hopes our presence might at least act as a future deterrent.

Us being visible and actually doing some work here

makes a bigger statement.

You know, even if we can't find, er, the culprit, we'll get it cleaned.

And from the small crowd that's gathered,

it seems to be doing the trick.

Today, what we're doing,

is we're doing a perception survey.

We're going around seeing what we can do better,

what the police can do better.

If these all get filled out and they come back to us,

we'll try and take notice.

If they're saying people...we're not cleaning the street enough,

we'll do a bit more cleaning the street, you know.

We've certainly had a reaction, let's say that much.

I've been handing out the letters and as we've gone along,

then a little sort of wake of people behind us have emerged

from their homes and now, Andrew is addressing them as a group.

All we're asking is for people to say, "Here's your house,

"look after it." That's what we want.

If we see some of the properties that are a little bit shabby,

it's not us that's causing them to look shabby.

It's quite tricky and I can see how

at the moment it's all very reasonable

and very rational, um, you know, and there's a good exchange of views.

And although most of them don't want to be identified,

it's safe to say the locals are very happy to share their opinions.

-The bins are a problem.

-Why are they a problem?

Because the bin men refuse to take them.

Well, I can get someone to come and talk to you

but, you know, we can't always come out

and deal with the little things when people want us to.

We try and deal with everything if we can.

If anyone comes to me, I'll deal with it.

Today is also about getting the tenants

to take more responsibility for themselves.

And not everyone's happy with Andrew's new tougher approach.

Now, the way everyone lives is entirely up to them, isn't it,

but at the end of the day,

we've all got to remember, we've got council accommodation.

There's certain standards we have to deal with.

You've jumped to it, for one house,

and everyone else is standing back going, "Wait, what's wrong with us?"

I can't speak for other people, I can only speak for myself,

and I can only tell you the truth, all right?

It's getting a bit more heated, I'll be honest with you.

And I think Andrew's in a bit of a corner.

I've got to take action against people that are breaking

their tenancy conditions.

And I've got to show I mean it as well, you know.

You've got to meet them halfway.

At some point, you've got to do some of that as a group

and get organised a little bit, even.

This is so far from the worst street I've seen.

I cannot tell you some of the places I've been.

You've got something really good here.

The fact that you can all get together

and talk like this in the street actually is incredibly rare.

But if you can agree as a group what it is you want, you know

Andrew can then make that happen.

The people that live here

obviously care about where they live and they want to improve things.

But it's going to have to be a team effort.

The council can't do it for them.

It's so hard pleasing everybody.

-You can't please everybody.

-No, no.

That's the thing, it's like I'm looking at them,

there's a group over there,

and each of them wants something slightly different from the one...

They all think they're speaking with one voice, but in fact, they're not.

They need to have a go at organising themselves

and finding out what it is they all want.

And then they'll discover that in fact it's not that easy.

If we stop here, it's half a job done.

I might as well, just, you know, make sure we finish.

It's funny, isn't it?

You know, streets, areas get reputations for the wrong reasons

when in fact they should get them for the good stuff.

Kids playing out in the street, and neighbours that know each other.

What we used to call community.

This one's not perfect - needs a bit of tweaking round the edges,

but then find me a street that doesn't.

Later, the results of the survey are in.

The perception is,

the council will not deal with that sort of complaint,

because I'm here today to say we're not going to do it.

Defending our right to a safe place to live

is the job of housing officers right across the UK.

This is not really an acceptable way of leaving the property behind.

Do you think(?)

'I'm working alongside the men and women that do exactly that.'

-Top marks.

-Yes!

I'm hitting the streets...

Hello, can you open up?

Definitely somebody inside because we've seen movement.

'..finding out what's happening on the front line...'

The cistern's in the bath. I don't know how they flush it.

..and learning what it takes to make sure

a house is fit to be called a home.

I'm very shocked. This is ridiculous.

You shouldn't have people living in here.

In 2013, home ownership in the UK

fell to its lowest level in a quarter of a century,

as ever-increasing prices keep more and more of us

off the housing ladder and into rented properties.

This is great news for landlords looking to make a profit,

but it also means that councils up and down the country

are being called upon to step in and rescue private tenants

when things go wrong.

In Wolverhampton, housing officer Clare Clifft

has been contacted by a family living in a privately rented house

who say their landlord has ignored

their complaints about a nasty infestation.

We've got a property that has potential bedbugs, so we're going

to go and see if they've got an infestation in their house.

They came into the offices to tell us about it.

I think the mum and dad came in and the little baby came in,

and she was actually covered in bites, actually.

So we need to get a good look at the bites and see what's going on.

Even though this is a privately owned house,

it still has to meet certain health and safety requirements.

If these aren't met,

the council can step in and issue a notice

ordering the landlord to sort the problem

or, in extreme circumstances, take them to court.

So Clare and colleague Sam Hoskins have come to investigate.

Hiya, are you all right?

It's Clare from the council. Are you OK?

Nummoua, her husband Cyril and their four children

have lived here for ten months.

They say they've contacted the landlord about the bedbugs

but he's done nothing about it.

Out of desperation,

they say they've been forced to call the council for help.

Are these all from your bedbugs, no? On your arms?

OK, so this was a lot worse the other day, wasn't it?

-It's new cream.

-Got any on your legs?

This one, no.

All right, then, we're going to pop up the stairs, all right?

Bedbugs are small insects

that can live in cracks and crevices

in and around beds or sofas.

They tend to feed at night,

attracted by the heat and carbon dioxide we give off.

If Clare and Sam are to help,

they first need to find evidence of an infestation.

-Why aren't you using this room, Cyril?

-Sorry.

-Are you using...? Is anyone sleeping in this room?

-No, no.

-Why?

-Because it's here the bedbugs.

Here's the bedbugs?

-OK.

-In here, yeah. These mattress, everything take out.

-So all the bedbugs you think are in here?

-Yeah, yeah.

-So you're all sleeping in the two rooms?

-Yeah.

-Did you speak to the landlord?

-Yeah.

-What did he say?

-Nothing.

-Nothing.

They're definitely present. It's just how big the infestation is.

You see sort of the spots of blood,

where...

-it's been feeding, OK?

-Yeah.

-Yep.

Although they don't transmit disease,

having bedbugs isn't a nice experience,

as their bites can cause a nasty, itchy reaction.

So Sam is taking a piece of, um...

Sellotape and patting it against the corners of the room and on the bed,

because sometimes you can't always see the bedbugs in daylight.

However, it looks like these bedbugs have either moved house or

don't want to be caught.

They're not the only thing worrying Clare.

I'm going to be doing a full inspection, because I've noticed

that there are some defects in the property,

missing door handles, large section of the wall missing,

got a broken floorboard, that window doesn't shut properly,

we've got exposed electrics in the hallway.

So whereas I thought it was

just originally going to be a bedbug complaint,

it's probably going to end up being a full inspection

with works and default...er, works

that the landlord has got to do as well.

The house is in a shocking state

but hopefully by having Clare and Sam involved,

it will force the landlord

into getting things sorted for the family.

So...

another problem.

Let's have a look what the window's like.

This window looks like it's about, not very well sealed in.

The frame wobbles when you push it

so it could do with full-on sealing,

and we've got a wasps' nest.

If you look, you can see all of the wasps coming in and out of the hole

and the... Crikey, it's a very busy one.

These aren't the insects Clare and Sam were looking for

but the wasp problem will need to be sorted as soon as possible.

-You never know what you're going to find.

-There we go.

But the fact that we've got quite... Have you got one?

Now Sam's sticky tape has found

what they were looking for in the first place -

a bedbug in one of the mattresses the family has been sleeping on.

Having dealt with infestations like this before,

Clare's taking no chances.

Sorry, I don't want to take them back to the office with me.

Bedbugs aren't attracted to dirt and could quite easily have been

in the house before Cyril and his family moved in.

Just when it looked as if the infestation problem

couldn't get any worse, there are signs that a third unwelcome guest

might also have made the house its home.

I think somewhere, some snails are getting in.

This would be a right house, then,

if we've got snails, wasps and bedbugs.

I think one more and you've got a zoo, haven't you?

Either that, Clare, or you're living in a giant peach.

This house needs some desperate emergency attention.

No, bit of food.

You need to phone pest control on this number,

tell them you've got bedbugs

and they'll come out and spray, OK, but you need to ring them

to book it in, all right,

so make sure you ring that number today, all right?

And then with the rest of the problems,

I'm going to write to your landlord

and tell him to get it done.

OK? All right? Are you all right with that?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Yeah? Because there are things that need fixing.

In an emergency situation like this

and because no action's been taken,

once the tenants have called in pest control,

Clare has the power to charge the landlord for the cost.

Right, thank you.

I'll give you a ring, OK, and let you know what's happening.

All right. See you later, bye.

Calling in Clare and Sam was a last resort for Cyril and Nummoua,

but it was the right option

as the bedbug problem is as the top of a very long list

of issues that must be dealt with.

There is a lot of work to be done,

quite a bit of structural work outside,

so I'll send him a letter saying exactly what needs to be done

and then give him 28 days, see what he does,

come out and re-inspect and take it from there, really.

The landlord has now started work

to put right all the maintenance issues at this property.

Pest control contractors have been called in to deal with

the wasps' nest and, although it took three treatments,

the bedbugs have now gone.

We're back in Suffolk,

where housing officer Andrew Weavers was conducting a survey

to tackle complaints about antisocial behaviour on what had,

fairly or unfairly, come to be known as a problem street.

Look, you know, we can't always come out and deal with the little things

when people want us to deal with the little things.

We'll try and deal with everything if we can.

That was two months ago. Now, with the survey results in,

Andrew's organised a meeting with the residents

to discuss its outcome. And like the last time they all met,

he's prepared for the debate to get a little bit heated.

If there's an issue with people

breaching their tenancy agreement, we'll deal with it.

If people have broken the law, the police will deal with it.

Anything else, really, I think

they've got to take the bull by the horns themselves.

The meeting's in a local pub,

which could be handy if Andrew needs a bit of Dutch courage.

The turnout's probably about 10 or 15 people

but they're going to be probably the people with a lot of the issues,

so, looking forward to it.

Not!

But Andrew's not here on his own.

Having been part of the team on the streets,

PCSO Gemma Robinson and housing officer Helen Brodowski

will be part of his backup team.

The recent survey that we did says that the council don't do anything.

I'm here to sort of dispel that myth.

We've got to talk about the jobs that we do,

what can be expected

and managing everybody's expectation about the council.

Right. Here we go.

The perception is 58% are very or fairly concerned

about antisocial behaviour.

We've got a lot of complaints about socialising in front gardens

and who am I to tell you where to socialise?

The council will not deal with that sort of complaint,

cos I'm here today to say we're not going to do it.

That's none of our business.

I think people ought to take responsibility.

If you are in your front garden

or are going to do anything in your front garden,

just think to yourself what impact you have on other people.

Once again, it seems one of the problems

is getting everyone to agree about what counts as antisocial behaviour.

A lot of the street say it's a great community spirit, right.

And there'll be a few in the street that'll say...

there's people saying there's loads of antisocial behaviour,

loads of crime, and again it's people's perception, isn't it?

If it's a breach of this agreement, the tenant's agreement,

this is where I fit in.

Andrew's point is an important one.

Tackling antisocial issues is the responsibility of everyone here.

The community needs to work WITH the council.

We get loose complaints saying that children aren't behaving themselves.

What does that mean?

As a housing officer, what am I going to do about that?

Now, if you say to me my next-door neighbour's children

are constantly throwing stones through my window and bricks...

Right. I've got my tenancy agreement here. I'll do something about it.

I will work closely with the police, so we will do stuff.

41% say rubbish or litter is a problem.

I don't see it's the council's fault for the litter.

I really don't, you know.

Can I just say it is the council's fault

when they come along to empty our bins and they empty the bin,

some of the rubbish falls out of the bin on to the road

and they left it there.

So what we can do is have a word with the contractors.

But it wouldn't hurt, maybe,

to having a word with children

and talking about the litter.

There might be some education work to be done

in the summer holidays -

there might be some litter picking with children and trying to...

it might a fun thing to do, mightn't it?

But that's the sort of thing I'm thinking of.

I do think that is a nice idea.

-I mean, we do geocaching, and we've done that.

-Yeah.

And they get a lot out of that,

you wouldn't think it

but you give them a grabber stick and a black bag and they love it.

It's also educational, isn't it?

At the end of the day it's teaching that

you can't just throw things down, you know.

I've tried to point out in the best way I possibly can

it's a joint effort and we're not going to be able to deal with it.

I think I've made my point.

Fortunately, there is something Andrew

and the council can help with in the short term.

The survey revealed that parking is a big problem in the street.

And he's got some good news.

We've had someone go and look at the street

and they think they'll be able to create another eight spaces.

I know time's getting on.

Is there anything else anyone wants to bring up because now's your time?

I don't know if you've found that useful.

All I would say is make sure you pass it on.

It's been a really helpful process for Andrew

and one he hopes will inspire more co-operation, not just between

the tenants and the council, but between the tenants themselves too.

We've put to bed some of the myths

of what we can and can't deal with.

People have got to take responsibilities

and this is what today's about. Trying to get people to take

the responsibility for their own actions.

After the meeting, the council wrote to all the tenants

to let them know the results of the survey.

Since then, to help deal with the rubbish problem,

they've organised extra litter picking to clean up the area.

They've also written to parents, politely asking them

to make sure children playing outside

are considerate towards other people living in the street.

That's it for today.

Join me next time on the front line with Britain's housing officers.