Episode 20 The Housing Enforcers

It just doesn't quite feel safe.

'Everyone deserves a safe place to live.'

What's it like for you living here?

'But with rents rising and demand increasing,

'it's getting harder and harder to find a secure place to call home.'

Passers-by have used these as toilets.

-There's clear evidence...

-There's someone living down here.

-Yep.

'I'm Matt Allwright and I'm back with The Housing Enforcers.'

There are definitely fleas here, there's infestation.

He was trying to make this into a home and then it just all went horribly wrong.

'I'm on the front line with those

'fighting for the right for decent housing...'

You can actually see the floorboards.

'..as local councils and housing associations battle problem

'properties and slum conditions...'

-Are you ready for this, are you?

-I don't know.

'..as they deal with dodgy landlords...'

-So, that's a dead rat.

-What am I going to do?

'..nightmare neighbours...'

There's a good chance that people will be getting evicted.

-Get rid of him!

-'..and everything in between...'

-I think that's referred to as a bong.

-A bong! Right. OK.

-A makeshift bong.

-Yeah, a makeshift bong.

'..to help those in need of a happy and healthy home.'

There's something strange in your neighbourhood.

Who you gonna call?

That's the one.

'Today we find what could be Britain's filthiest home.'

The overwhelming smell here is disgusting.

Here we are. Standing on a house-high pile

of faeces and cider cans.

'And we see how housing enforcers are using CCTV as a weapon in

'the fight against antisocial behaviour.'

I've been terrified, petrified, you name it,

we've had all the emotions this time.

All hell broke loose and I could hear somebody screaming.

There was blood everywhere in the hallway.

It used to be so straightforward.

You leave education, you get yourself a job and then settle down

once you've found a house or flat, and even though happily ever after

wasn't guaranteed, you could usually depend on getting an affordable and

safe place to live.

Well, it's no secret that thanks to the housing crisis,

today things are a bit more complicated.

But there are men and women across the UK whose job it is to ensure

that everyone has the opportunity to enjoy a safe roof over their heads.

Every day they're out fighting for your rights.

They are the housing enforcers.

In Kent I'm spending the day with Swale Borough Council housing

officer Glyn Pritchard,

inspecting a private residence that's now empty but has still been

attracting complaints from the neighbours.

Glyn's got 25 years' experience under his belt so it's a pretty

safe bet he's seen it all in his time.

-Until today, that is.

-That's the one.

You can see from the outside that normally when it looks worse than

the rest, there's usually reasons for it.

So what's the scenario here?

Why are we here?

The neighbours complained last year.

The police entered the property to try and find if he was in there

because the resident hadn't been seen for a while.

So there were concerns over him.

They then contacted us to say there was a problem with the condition of

the property, so we then started to try and contact the owner

but he wasn't living at the property.

We couldn't get in, but we could see through the window.

Just so I'm clear again,

it was in a state a year ago and no-one's been in,

we think, in that year?

No. We have served legal notice twice to try and resolve

the issue and, ultimately, he still didn't do the work,

so we've had to get a warrant to get in and now we're actually executing

the warrant to get into the property.

'OK. Now I'm really worried.

'Glyn wants us to enter a property that hasn't been touched in over a

'year with no idea of what's inside

'and he's clearly taking it very seriously.'

Protective mask, gloves.

What I will do is...

We tend to spray ourselves, just in case of any insects, bugs,

fleas or anything like that.

Top to bottom with it.

After doing it for 25 years, I cover myself!

THEY LAUGH

-I've never taken anything home yet.

-Right.

-These are nice, aren't they?

-Here we go.

-Enter.

-You lead the way.

-I'll lead the way and see what we can find.

'Despite the protective gear, I'm still feeling nervous.

'Especially when I discover how Glyn's expecting us to get into the house.'

We've got a window open at the moment.

-Is that the way in?

-That's one way in.

-Right.

-The other way is the door, which is a very tight squeeze.

It's not much of a choice, is it, really?

Glyn, you know the bit I really like?

Amongst all of this stuff which is already

humming, there are just, there are two air fresheners.

'Glyn's decided that we are going to have to go through

'the window with this one. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?'

-Oh, my God!

-Have you seen it?

That's just like...

It's about four, five foot high.

Oh, my God. That's incredible!

All I can see is

cider cans, videos, and tissues.

How can one person drink so much cider?

'And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse...'

Oh, no!

We're not sure, but those could be full of

other things other than food in Tupperware.

It's not food in there, why put it in Tupperware?

Why keep it?

That's...the opposite of what you have to do with that.

You're supposed to flush it away, not preserve it.

'Faced with a cocktail of cider cans and human waste,

'I'm not looking forward to going inside.'

-You going in that way?

-I'm going to go in.

It is fairly high and we're looking at least five foot in here.

Right. OK. I'm going to have to go in.

If Glyn can do this, I can do this.

I'm going in.

Get in from outside, hold on to the top.

'It's not the most graceful way to get in, but it's nothing compared

'to what I'm about to face.'

There's, like, the only safe place to step here is

on videos. You're stepping on videos,

DVDs and you just about get away with it.

Everything else, everything else is disgusting.

The overwhelming smell

here is of fermenting apples and faeces.

I've never been able to touch a ceiling standing on the rubbish

-before, that's a new one on me.

-Difficult to avoid it.

At that point there that's got to be five foot.

It's probably the one I've seen the highest with alcohol cans.

Faeces...isn't an issue, that's standard.

Faeces IS an issue, Glyn. Where are you going to start with this?

How can you begin to do this?

'Glyn's experience is doing a good job of keeping him calm.

'Well, calmer than me, anyway.'

'Personally, I'm not sure I would ever be able to get used to a scene

'like this, even after 25 years on the job.'

You are kidding me!

I mean, don't get me wrong, of a weekend,

I enjoy watching a film, yeah?

I even enjoy the odd can of cider from time to time.

This is taking it too far!

You know what I saw here?

Down here, mixed in amongst this?

A set of those clippers for doing your nasal hair.

Well, I wouldn't want to use them.

No, but I would say that's fine tuning.

When you've got a pile, a five-foot pile in your living room

of cider cans, faeces in Tupperware,

don't worry about the nasal hair thing.

Where are we going?

At the moment, I think possibly the safest bet is upstairs.

'Join me later to discover if it can possibly get any worse.'

Here we are, standing on a house-high pile of faeces.

There's definitely evidence of mice, rats.

This is like a combat zone, it's like he's declared war

on the house and himself.

Anti-social behaviour. Three little words that can mean a whole lot of

trouble for both tenants and housing officers.

For tenants, it's no fun living next door to noisy neighbours,

overgrown gardens or having a collection of refuse dumped

unceremoniously on your doorstep.

And for the housing officer,

well, tackling antisocial behaviour can mean having to play

the role of policeman, diplomat and counsellor,

all rolled into one.

Here in Newcastle,

one housing association has come up with a special scheme to help combat

antisocial behaviour.

The use of CCTV to protect tenants is nothing new, of course,

but here in the North East,

housing officer Laurie Edmundson

helps run the Eyewitness Programme,

where specially employed teams are also on hand to help in the battle

against loud noise and unruly neighbours.

OK, so, Eyewitnesses, they're called.

Are they uniformed?

-Are they identifiable?

-No, and that's part of it.

They're completely plain clothes,

in a normal car and it's out-of-hours for people who

are experiencing antisocial behaviour,

so the idea is they call in to our

out-of-hours provider, they take the details of what's going on,

an incident that's happening then and there and we send out an officer

who will go out as a third-party person, see what's happening,

giving us, you know, on occasion, fantastic evidence.

That evidence can then be given by that Eyewitness officer in court if

we need it and it removes that victim.

Why is that approach needed, then?

Why not just call the police or somebody else that could take that

-evidence as well?

-I mean, don't get us wrong,

we do promote people ringing the police and always will, but

we want to know what's going on in our estates and

what antisocial behaviour is happening,

to be able to have that evidence for us for the start of the next working

day to be able to go out and challenge people on their behaviour.

'The specially trained Eyewitness officers are on call every night.

'Equipped with camera and sound gear, they can record evidence as an

'incident happens.

'It's a great idea, but does it work?

'Antisocial behaviour, from what I've seen, is incredibly difficult

'to prove for all sorts of reasons,

'being there at the time when it happens and also people's

'willingness to come forward. This sounds like it could be an answer.'

You're right, it can be difficult to prove one word against another but

therefore if you put an Eyewitness officer in who can witness it

themselves, and give us that evidence, you know,

the job's a winner in that respect.

And we've had fantastic results from the service.

'Laurie is clearly a big fan of the scheme and as night falls,

'I take on the challenge of manning the antisocial behaviour hotline

'myself, alongside Eyewitness agent, Kev.

'For obvious reasons we've disguised his identity.

'It's not long before a call comes in.'

Champion, right, I'll set off there.

Cheers, cheers, mate. Thanks, ta-ra, now.

Basically the caller is saying that there's a group of kids who've been

drinking, climbing over the wall into the car park behind

and that caused a disturbance and they're still there now.

'We're responding to an incident in central Newcastle.'

There's something strange in your neighbourhood.

Who you gonna call?

-Call me.

-Yeah, call... Call Kev!

So at this stage, then, what's going through your mind?

At this stage I'm sort of assessing firstly the area that I'm going to.

I wouldn't be out of place because it's the city centre whereas

a housing estate, it's a little bit like going into a pub, your local,

when you're not a local - everybody looks at you.

Sometimes housing estates are like that.

It's in a public place so there'll be lots of people driving past and

walking past anyway so it makes me think, well, I should

be OK to monitor what's going on.

Hopefully they'll still be there.

I mean, you're there to witness but it does mean you put yourself in a

degree of danger, there's a degree of risk involved with the places

-you're going?

-Very much so. It can be quite intimidating.

You've got to really try and get in close and get some evidence and

sometimes it means climbing up walls and crawling through gardens.

'Kev's really putting his neck on the line to help local residents.'

Once I'm past the wall,

I'll find somewhere to ditch the car and approach on foot.

It's behind...

this is it here.

So, because there doesn't appear to be anybody.

Are you talking about the wall at the back there?

Yeah. There's a car park at the back.

'We think we've found the location. But as yet, we can't spot

'any antisocial behaviour.'

I am going to take a little walk with Kev and

see what we can see, but it's best if the cameras stay here,

we don't want to draw too much attention.

'Time for a good look around.

'Will we find the noisy youths?'

So, we took a stroll around the property and nothing to be seen at

-this stage.

-We'd normally hang around,

but there isn't any reason to hang around because there's nothing here.

If nothing else, we can go back to the office and report whatever it

-was has gone away.

-Yes.

'It looks like we just missed out on finding the source of

'the disturbance, but it's a huge reassurance for housing association

'residents of the North East to know there are special officers on hand

'when antisocial behaviour happens.

'Later, we'll be seeing how this new scheme has helped tenants Brian and

'Angela, after a nightmare weekend leaves them shaken.'

Been terrified.

Petrified. You name it. We've had all the emotions this time.

All hell broke lose and I could hear somebody screaming.

There's blood everywhere in the hallway.

'Earlier, in Swale, I joined housing officer Glyn Pritchard,

'inspecting the worst house I've ever seen,

'abandoned by its owner more than a year ago.'

Oh, no!

That's not food in there!

Why put it in Tupperware?

The overwhelming smell

here is of fermenting apples and faeces.

'The living room is in an absolutely shocking state.

'And things don't improve as we pick our way upstairs.'

Oh, my God, there's like a whole thing of clothes!

Now, we're into... this is the wardrobe area.

-Yes.

-Oh, my God!

I think this is probably going to be it.

Because every room's the same.

That room you can't get in to.

That room is exactly the same as downstairs.

'And it appears the toilet arrangements are the same up here, too.'

All the excrement, everything is in bags.

There's an old quilt.

There's definitely evidence of mice, rats.

Even the rats wouldn't live in this!

This is like a combat zone.

It's like he's declared war on the house and himself.

Here we are,

standing on a, you know, a house-high pile

of faeces and cider cans.

The smell is overwhelming, because downstairs it was mostly cider.

-Up here it's...

-Up here, you've definitely got...

This is why I won't go any further now.

Because you've definitely got all the excrement up here,

which is where the problems have been.

I haven't seen anything like this.

It's just the sheer quantity of stuff.

And I think possibly

the only clear place is the loft.

What do we need to assess, realistically, looking at the job?

Realistically now, this is a full house clearance.

So, it's a contractor in and literally they're going to have to

strip the whole lot.

There is probably nothing that is salvageable in here.

I can't imagine that you could even leave the floorboards in this place.

Everything's got to be deep cleansed to get it back to any kind of...

We work on that basis -

get the rubbish out first

and then we go from there and just work on that process.

'It might be because of the shock of the mess,

'or the smell of a year's worth of human waste,

'but either way it's really hard to get my head around what could have

'happened to the owner that would

'make him treat his own home in this way.'

You know, we've had hoarders before that we've seen and we've seen people who

clearly have, you know, illnesses that they're trying to get past,

which affect their behaviour and the rest of it.

-What's going on with somebody that lives like this?

-We don't know.

I know this is not your job. Your job's to come here, make it better,

but you can't come in somewhere like this and not think to yourself,

what on earth is going on in this guy's head?

The thing is, without being able to talk to him, usually you can assess,

you can find, but on this instance we can't even get that, you

know, dialogue going with him.

So, we need to work from there.

At what point does he lose the right to have this property?

I mean, it's going to be affecting your next door neighbours,

and if he comes back in and does the same thing again,

at some point, do you lose the right to own this property?

If we can get a debt on the property,

under certain circumstances

we can go through an enforced sale-type procedure.

We can work with him, being an empty property,

to bring it up to standard and possibly get him to rent it out.

And, ultimately, compulsory purchase is something that is there,

but that will be a long, drawn-out process.

Because the work that it's going to take to put this back

in any habitable form is going to be very expensive, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Talking about thousands.

Just the clearance will probably be in the thousands.

Have we done everything we need to do in this property?

I can't go any further and I can't take you any further.

Can we please go?

I, I can't see any more of this and I certainly can't smell any more.

It is a tragic situation,

but the pressing problem now is how to sort this place out

so it's no longer affecting the neighbours.

Oh, God!

I've never seen anything like that.

Tissues, Tupperware and just terrible, terrible filth.

You know, if it was, if it was standing by itself, freestanding,

detached, my honest reaction would be - knock the whole thing down.

Just put everything into a skip and just get rid of it.

'But fortunately Glyn's 25 years of experience means he's able to offer

'a more practical solution,

'one that involves making the owner take responsibility for this mess.'

We'll get it cleared.

It will be reasonably expensive but we will be recovering it off the

owner. He's had the opportunity to clear it.

We've given him two notices in the past.

Hasn't done it and we're left with no alternative.

That's going to be the next step.

To get this place back into use - that's our main aim.

To satisfy and keep things from the neighbours, so they're happier.

I really appreciate it. And you can have your gloves back.

-We'll find some clean ones for you next time.

-Thank you very much.

'That's the other important thing about this disgusting tale.

'It's one thing to destroy our own standard of living.

'It's quite another to start affecting your neighbours, too.'

So, you've lived next door to all of that - how's that been for you?

It's just awful.

-And it turned into a tourist attraction.

-Really?

-It really did.

-You got people coming here to see that?

-They were coming up.

Trawling up the garden path, looking through the window,

because people could not believe what was in there.

It is quite extraordinary.

But just to be clear, you've had mice coming across?

-Yes.

-And...

Rats in the garden, as big as cats.

You knew it was bad when the postman, he said, "That's it,

"I'm not delivering here any more because I cannot get up this garden path."

I mean, the smell coming from there, I mean, I can smell it now.

-Yeah.

-And you've got that all day, every day.

Well, you get used to it.

'No-one should have to get used to it.

'Catch up later to see how Glyn manages to get a grip on the grime.'

It is something that we've got to do and we've got to,

we've just found a dead rat.

He's been dead a fair while by the looks of it.

'Defending our right to a safe place to live is the job of housing

'officers right across the UK.' You've done a great thing.

-You've done a superb thing.

-It's like a red rag to a bull, isn't it?

Doing something like that.

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

There's a window open there as well.

-Not so bad. Seen worse.

-'..hitting the streets,

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

The smell around here is really strong.

'..as we make sure a house is a fit place to call a home.'

Oh, so you've got a choice.

-Tomahawk of some sort.

-Choice of a tomahawk or the bayonet.

So, that's a parting shot, is it, from the tenant?

'Earlier we saw how a Newcastle housing association is helping to

'keep its residents safe by using independent Eyewitnesses to deal

'with antisocial behaviour.'

It can be quite intimidating.

You've got to really try and get in close and get some evidence.

And sometimes it means climbing over walls and crawling through gardens.

'Today, we're close to the Scottish Border,

'heading to the most northerly town in England, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

'Lindsay Jones and Geoff Johnston are following up on a recent

'late-night callout for one of their Eyewitness officers.'

The reports that we got through were quite concerning -

there was an assault, fighting on the communal staircase,

loud music, shouting.

Got so bad at one stage that the police were called.

We had an Eyewitness officer deployed who actually witnessed some

noise coming from one of the flats in there. Bearing in mind this was

only 6.30am, it was the aftermath of

a long night of disturbances, unfortunately.

Ideally today I want to try and review the CCTV footage

that we have installed

and see what evidence that brings to light.

Hopefully we'll be able to identify those involved and take the

appropriate action.

'There's an ongoing problem at these flats,

'so the housing association has installed its own cameras.

'CCTV, along with the Eyewitness scheme,

'should help to clamp down on unruly residents.

'The late-night antics and violent outbursts have been wreaking

'havoc on long-suffering residents like Brian and Angela.'

We've come in response to what occurred over the weekend.

Really we just want to get from you exactly what occurred and who was

involved, if you know.

This has been a nightmare weekend, absolutely nonstop.

Been terrified, petrified, you name it, we've had all the emotions this time.

It all started Friday night, yeah?

About half past nine, all hell broke loose, big fight,

things smashed all over the place, her screaming her head off.

He ran out after about 20 minutes, she chased him with a bottle.

At some point they locked her out of that flat,

because she was booting at the door, "Open the door, let us in,"

and she was kicking at the door.

'Late-night noise in one of the flats escalated into violence.

'I can only imagine what a terrifying ordeal it must be to hear

'all of that going on outside your front door.'

All hell broke loose and I could hear somebody screaming.

There's blood everywhere in the hallway.

And he was screaming that he wasn't happy and that he was going to go

and get the police.

This particular part of the disturbance went on for a good few

hours, I'm guessing, from what you describe?

It just went on all night. Right through to seven in the morning.

'To make matters even worse,

'the chaos wasn't contained to a single flat.'

-And that's when the party started.

-That's when the party started.

They were all fighting in that flat as well.

So there were two separate incidents, really, weren't there?

'If fighting and screaming throughout the night wasn't bad

'enough, they also set off the fire alarm for three hours.'

ALARM WAILS

'Brian is in poor health,

'and incidents like this are adding to the stress he's already under.'

I mean, it's not on, it's totally unacceptable

and you shouldn't have to live like that,

and we'll do our best to make sure.

That was the scariest time for me, fire alarms blaring.

I can't get up the stairs to see where the fire is,

if there is a fire, so I have to call the fire brigade,

and I'm panicking because I need more time to get out, you know,

get ready and stuff.

It's so depressing.

This was a lovely place to stay. I can honestly say it's not now.

'Feeling terrorised by their neighbours,

'Brian and Angela are hoping that this new scheme will help to bring

'an end to their misery.'

I've spoken to the police and they are keen to meet with us so

we can work together to address the problems.

Hopefully we'll be able to share what information we need to share

and progress things quite quickly.

It's all on camera, it's all there to see.

Hopefully it will identify exactly who's been involved,

given the serious nature of what occurred over the weekend.

If we can gather the evidence then we'll certainly be taking the appropriate action.

'And in this case that would certainly mean eviction

'for the guilty party.

'The CCTV footage, along with the Eyewitness account,

'should identify the main troublemakers.'

'But, for now, Geoff and Lindsay want to hear what

'the alleged culprits have to say for themselves.

'No joy at the first flat thought to be involved.

'But, at the second, the tenant is home.'

Catherine, it's Geoff and Lindsay from ISOS.

-Got a couple of minutes?

-Yeah, that's fine, yeah.

Just wanted to come and have a chat with you about the events that

happened over the weekend.

We've had an out-of-hours report received and an Eyewitness officer

attended in the early hours of Saturday morning

-hearing noise coming from this property.

-Yeah.

Can you tell us what was happening?

Somebody buzzed and he just kicked off,

started beating people up in the building.

-Were people in your flat at that time?

-I had two friends here.

The Eyewitness officer made a number of sound recordings,

people singing and carrying on.

Were you aware that you were making that much noise?

I wasn't aware anybody was singing, so...

But I know down the stairs there were people in that flat as well,

-so I don't know.

-Right, OK,

but as far as you're concerned there was no noise coming from your flat?

I definitely don't remember anybody singing, anyway.

-That's for sure.

-Yeah.

'Although Catherine wasn't involved in any of the violence

'that Brian and Angela reported,

'Geoff and Lindsay are still concerned about allegations of

'loud noise coming from her flat.

'That's still clearly antisocial behaviour.'

Obviously we've discussed the situation with regard to your

tenancy before, and inviting people back and the noise issues.

We're just a bit concerned that there seems to be a bit of escalation in

what's been going on here and the problems seem to have worsened.

We're in the process of gathering evidence at the moment through

the CCTV that we've got.

Obviously if there's anything

that points towards issues concerning your

tenancy or visitors who have been coming to your property,

we will be looking at taking a more serious tenancy action

if the situation warrants it.

Have you got anything you want to add to that at this

-moment?

-No.

-Sure?

-Yeah.

-Thanks for your time.

-Thanks.

Speak to you again soon.

'For those subjected to it,

'antisocial behaviour can be hugely upsetting.

'Everyone has the right to feel safe and secure in their own home.'

It's the behaviour of a few, I don't think they understand

the impact their behaviour can cause and the distress it

can cause a person trying to go about their normal life.

Certainly I wouldn't like to be disturbed the hours

he's getting disturbed at the moment,

and it's our job to try and ensure that these problems are resolved as

quickly as possible. We've issued tenancy warnings in the past.

If those involved have already had a previous warning,

potentially we'd be looking at taking stronger action,

which may ultimately be a notice against their tenancy,

which would ultimately lead to court action,

hopefully to gain possession of the property back,

but again that will depend on the evidence we have and exactly what comes forward.

We'll go back to the office,

review the CCTV footage that we've got,

and we'll take the action against

those that we have the evidence to pursue.

'Later on, the CCTV footage reveals more than we'd bargained for.'

Have we identified who that was coming out of the door?

We have identified the person, and we'll be seeking possession of the property.

'Earlier, I visited an abandoned house of filth so disgusting it even

'left experienced housing officer Glyn Prichard shocked.'

All the excrement, everything is in bags.

I can't go any further, and I can't take you any further.

Can we please go?!

'Well, the good news is that Glyn is back, and I'm not,

'and he's managed to convince some

'very brave souls to help him clear the house.'

Today we've got the contractors in,

we're busy doing all the clear-up.

The owner still hasn't responded to us and, as you can see,

at the moment they can't even get into the property still.

We've been here about 45 minutes so far.

How long do we think it's going to take?

-Couple of days?

-Two or three days at least.

-Two or three days.

We haven't even made a dent to get in through the front door yet.

'But the task is proving a little easier said than done.'

I'm actually hitting the floor.

One of the precautions they've got to take is that we know there is

mice and rats been in the property,

so they will take that necessary precaution.

They are not going to be eating their sandwiches straight after

being in there without washing their hands or anything.

But it is something that we've got to do...

And we've just found a dead rat.

He's been dead a fair while, by the looks of it.

Yeah, it's quite a big one.

'Given the scale of the challenge, the team aren't taking any chances.'

You just don't know what's in there,

and it's all mould and it's all things like that,

and that's what's really going to affect your health in there, so,

yeah, you do have to take precautions.

I'm not actually going to go into the property,

I'll let them get on with their job,

and I'll go and supervise a bit further into the clean!

'Very smart man, Glyn. Let the experts take charge.'

Yeah, getting there, slowly.

Just get in and go as far as we can get.

It doesn't really bother me, but it's the smell,

you just stink of it afterwards as well.

You keep on smelling that smell.

'The incredible thing is that the telly is still on standby.'

Where's the remote?!

There you are, we've got a telly.

Oh, it's got no signal.

HE CHUCKLES

'While Glyn takes a less hands-on approach,

'the guys inside find an interesting clue that tells them just how long

'it's been since the place enjoyed a spring clean.'

January 2007. Eight and a half years ago.

Well, we've managed to get through to some of the furniture, which,

looking at the state of it, is rotted to high heaven.

Whatever's at the bottom of there,

it's not going to be anything salvageable, it is that far gone.

Which will probably mean all the carpets have gone as well,

so they'll all have to come up.

'With the contractors succeeding in clearing safe passage inside,

'Glyn decides it's now time to brave going in.'

Oh, I have to wipe my feet before I come in now, it's that clean so far!

So, yeah, you've made a bit of progress in here.

I was going to say, can we actually tell what colour the carpet is?

Well, pink over there, green there, and blue over there.

So I'm going blue at the moment.

Yeah, nothing worth salvaging at all.

I don't think they're going to get a refund for that.

'It's clearly a thankless task for everyone involved,

'and the progress is slow but sure.'

That's the first skip gone, so hopefully...

..it gets easier.

'Someone else who's clearly delighted

'to see the back of the rubbish is neighbour Terry.'

Incredible. I'm so glad the council have really got their act together

on our behalf and have made a good job of it.

It was very deceiving, because when you looked through the window you

saw what you thought was a fair bit,

but when it starts coming out,

it was two or three mountains

and, as you can see,

what's in here is just a small part

of what's been taken out of this house.

And they're still at it, the boys.

'Let's just hope they can keep going. Look at it.'

'One week later and Glyn is back.

'The contractors have gone, but what about the rubbish?'

Cleared up, and they've done a pretty good job.

There's a path, I didn't even know there was a path here.

'It's a good start,

'but let's see if Glyn can get into the house using the front door.

'He's got his nice jacket on.'

And that's what the door actually looks like properly.

And I can actually open the door.

'As they say in all the best makeover shows,

'here comes the reveal.'

CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS

'The difference is amazing.'

And the staircase, which I think had rubbish up to about here...

..you can actually see.

Couldn't get to the kitchen the first time because we had to walk

down a pile, and we have a kitchen.

Yeah, they earned their money doing this job, that was for certain.

'No kidding. Upstairs, where it was, well, horrible...

'..just take a look.

'The bathroom is a bathroom again.

'It's amazing that a mess that took years to create has been removed in

'just under a week.'

If somebody saw it now they wouldn't realise what was in here or what had

actually happened in here.

'Which just leaves the small matter of what happens next.'

If the owner did turn up tomorrow,

the first thing we'd be doing is give him the bill.

If he still chooses not to pay it or doesn't contact us or discuss it

with us, we have the ability to put it as a charge

on the property and/or take him to court.

'Well, even if the owner never bothers to return,

'there are plenty of very happy neighbours who I'm sure would give

'you a pat on the back, Glyn.'

From our point of view, it's a good job well done.

'Earlier in Northumberland,

'we visited Berwick-upon-Tweed where late-night noise and outbreaks of

'violence were terrorising social housing residents.'

All hell broke loose and I could hear somebody screaming.

There was blood everywhere in the hallway.

This was a lovely place to stay.

I can honestly say it's not now.

'So far we've seen how an Eyewitness account can be an invaluable tool

'when trying to get to the bottom of antisocial behaviour.

'When coupled with CCTV footage, the evidence can be irrefutable.'

'I've come to the housing association offices to catch up

'with Geoff and take a look at the CCTV from the night in question.'

Just remind us what the situation was.

-What was going on?

-We'd received a report of some serious antisocial

behaviour over the weekend and responded to that,

going up interviewing a few of the complainants and interviewed one of

the alleged perpetrators,

as well as reviewing some of the CCTV that we'd had installed up at

one of the blocks up there as well. An Eyewitness officer was called,

around about half past six in the morning and witnessed a

-full party ongoing...

-At half past six in the morning?

At half past six in the morning.

..and was able to give us a few

-recordings and a statement of exactly what they saw.

-OK.

So at that stage we've got some of the evidence...

..but then the CCTV provides us with something else.

-That's right, yeah.

-'The Eyewitness evidence alerted the team to two

'incidents, one of violent behaviour and the other, excessive noise.'

'Let's see what the CCTV revealed about the first allegation.'

-Shall we have a look?

-Yep, absolutely.

-Talk me through it.

-Right.

Well, the first clip, it's basically just picking up some of the noise,

given the time - the recording is half past five in the morning,

but the music is actually within that block,

the camera is located outside,

so it should give you an idea of how loud your disturbance was.

-That's...

-At quarter to six in the morning.

Somebody again trying to gain access to the party.

He was outside for half an hour trying to get in.

'So at the moment it just looks that a party was a little louder than is

'socially acceptable for that time in the morning,

'until the video reveals something even more shocking.'

Later on that morning, following what has happened...

SHOUTING

So there, Geoff, we've gone from sort of half past five,

quarter to six in the morning, through till half past 11 in the

morning at which point out she pops with a bottle,

brandishing a bottle above her head and have we identified who that was

-coming out of the door?

-We have identified the person involved.

Obviously we'll be taking the appropriate action that that

-behaviour warrants.

-'In this instance the footage speaks for

'itself, but thanks to the new Eyewitness scheme,

'there is also the ability to measure the impact that this

'behaviour has on other residents.'

In terms of the balance of the evidence that you have got here, how

important, for instance here, was Eyewitness in getting what you got?

It was incredibly important.

I mean, the Eyewitness officer obviously is able to take recordings

from within the block, but also give a personal perspective of what they have

seen and be able to give their view of how it would feel if they were

having to put up with living next door to that.

'Having gathered all the crucial evidence on this first incident,

'Geoff's ready to send out a clear message.'

We will be taking enforcement action and will be seeking possession

-of the property.

-Right.

So you're going to be...the ultimate

-sanction really as a housing authority.

-That's right.

-Wow. OK.

-That's solid. Real action.

-It is.

'The antisocial behaviour is so poor that the only solution is eviction.

'Geoff must put the safety and security of his other tenants first,

'but there was also another reported incident that night,

'this time coming from Catherine's flat,

'although there were no allegations of violence,

'there were complaints about noise.'

The Eyewitness officer made a number of sound recordings.

Were you aware that you were making that much noise?

-Well, I definitely don't remember anybody singing anyway, that's for sure.

-Yeah.

So the tenant who was claiming quite openly that she was nothing to

do with this, where does this evidence leave her?

Well, the Eyewitness officer who attended that

early morning did witness noise coming from her flat.

CCTV shows our tenant and her friends entering the flat at exactly

that time and she's been responsible for that disturbance.

'The evidence is clear-cut and Catherine will receive a warning

'about the level of noise and disturbance caused to her neighbours.

'She's also been told this could affect her tenancy in the future.'

What difference will it make to the people in that block getting this

-behaviour under control?

-It will make a world of difference.

Their lives have been in turmoil for months due to the behaviour of these

people and now we've got the evidence to take the action we need

-to stop them from doing it in the future.

-Good stuff.

Well, as we've just seen, being a housing officer means

a daily dose of tough choices and difficult decisions,

but it's all in a day's work for the men and women fighting to

ensure we can enjoy a safe place to call home.

That's it for today, but join me again next time when I'll be back on

the front line with the housing enforcers.