Episode 5 The Housing Enforcers

It's difficult to imagine calling this a home.

'Everyone deserves a safe place to live.'

So, that's a dead rat.

'But with rents rising and demand increasing,

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

You can actually see the floorboards of the bathroom there.

There's clear evidence here.

-There's someone living down here.

-Yeah.

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

Someone nicked your wheelchair?

'I'm on the front line with those fighting for the right to decent housing.'

The amount of mould is quite shocking.

Happiest residents of this property are the rats.

'As local councils and housing associations battle problem properties in slum conditions...'

It is just a scene of Dickensian misery.

It absolutely pen and inks.

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

SHOUTING

'..nightmare neighbours...'

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

'..and everything in between...'

Does feel like we are close to the bottom of the housing ladder here.

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

If there's something strange in your neighbourhood,

who you gonna call?

'Today I'm taking to the air to meet the tenants living the island life.'

I'm not kidding, these are three of the loveliest properties

I think I've seen. These are stunning.

'Tracking down a rough sleeper could be a matter of life and death.'

I'm actually worried about the people in this property.

You imagine if they're having a few drinks, smoking,

we could potentially have a fire here

and it wouldn't be detected until it was really raging.

An eviction reveals a property in a shocking condition.

This is the bathroom over here.

There is a lot of damage to the door.

There is a disabled shower, that's got a lot of damage.

Water everywhere.

And I meet my match with one tenant in Gloucestershire.

Do you ever sit and, you know,

watch the ducks and sit and look at the canal?

No, I haven't got to that stage!

Finding a suitable place to call home for you and your family

has never been harder.

Especially for those on a restricted budget.

But low rent shouldn't mean your house doesn't live up to

the same basic standards as everyone else's.

Fortunately, there is a group of men and women who are out on

the front line battling on your behalf

against bad and dangerous living conditions.

They are the housing enforcers.

Across the UK, there are nearly 5 million social housing properties

providing much-needed roofs over the heads

of families of all shapes and sizes.

From city high-rises...

..to semis in the suburbs...

to some of the most far-flung corners of the British Isles.

So, just another standard filming day on Housing Enforcers.

Nothing out of the ordinary at all.

Except that I'm in Cornwall.

About to board a plane.

With housing maintenance officer Dave Hall.

-Hi, Dave, how are you?

-I'm all right, how are you?

-Good to see you.

-I'm very excited.

-Welcome to Newquay.

Dave works for the Cornwall Rural Housing Association who aim

to look after the needs of tenants down in this beautiful part of the map.

Today he's letting me join him on his rounds across to the Isles of Scilly,

a place perhaps more famous for holidays than social housing.

-Shall we?

-I think they're waiting for us now.

This is definitely not how I usually get to work.

I'm betting there's not too many housing teams

who have to jump on a plane to meet their tenants.

Normally the life of a housing officer

is a lot less glamorous than this.

Once we've landed, though, transport becomes, well, much more basic.

So, where's your car, then?

There's no car. So, we're only five minutes away,

so we'll just stroll down.

-Just going to walk there?

-Yeah.

OK. Let's go.

Let's do it.

I suppose the exercise will help with the jet lag.

Look at this. Where else would you get to just stroll down the road

to go and have a look at some properties?

'Well, anywhere, really.

'There's no doubt the scenery is very appealing,

'but with lower than average wages and high property prices,

'many locals struggle to find a home here.

'That's why the 27 Housing Association properties

'that Dave looks after are so vital.'

'The first property we're inspecting demonstrates, though, that even if

'you're lucky enough to find a house here,

'it doesn't always guarantee a home for life.'

-Dave from the Association.

-Oh, hello.

-How are you doing, mate?

How are you doing?

'The property is being vacated today

'and the tenant's father is helping with the final clear up.

'We're checking to see that the place is left in a decent state for its new occupants.'

-This gentleman's daughter's moving out.

-Yeah.

-Or she's moved out.

-She's gone.

-She's gone now?

-She went Monday.

-And...

-Can I ask where she's gone?

-Camborne.

-She's gone to Camborne, so she's back to the mainland?

-Is that right?

-That's right.

Oh, I see, OK.

My daughter, my granddaughter, rather,

is going to attend the college at Camborne.

Right. Do you think she's going to come back after...?

Come back? No.

-That's it, gone?

-Gone.

-Right.

-OK.

-That's the way it happens.

It's a stark reminder that behind this almost fairy-tale scenery,

residents of these beautiful islands

are faced with some very real challenges.

As we've seen first-hand,

the Scilly Isles struggles to keep young people here.

With only one secondary school and no college on the islands,

they're often forced to leave to access further education

and many don't return.

But it sounds like there's no shortage of people in the queue for housing.

Is there a waiting list? Have you got people desperate for this?

This has got somebody waiting to come in already.

It's estimated there are more than 1.3 million households

waiting for a social home in England alone,

so it's no surprise this place has already been snapped up.

But Dave and his team have guidelines on who might be eligible

for the next one that becomes available.

How does allocation of housing differ in somewhere like Scilly?

Are you allocating on need,

like other housing associations or other social housing?

You're duty-bound to do that?

We have to do that. There's all sorts of stipulations,

so you have a local connection, a family connection,

or you've lived on the islands for quite a long period of time or you're working.

So, yeah, you've got to have a real strong connection.

And that's the whole idea. We're a local housing association for

-local people.

-I can't just fly in?

Not a chance.

But as the former tenant's father gathers her final possessions,

Dave's job now begins.

Preparing the property for its next phase.

Very interesting, the idea that he was saying people leave,

people leave Scilly and don't come back.

So it makes you wonder who's going to be here next,

because this is a family house

just waiting for somebody to take it over.

Interesting.

But we've still got a busy day ahead of us

with plenty more tenants for Dave to check up on.

We haven't got time to stand around and admire the surroundings.

Well, we've got a little bit of time.

And that's one of yours as well?

-Yes.

-It's a Housing Association house?

These are... These are ours.

-Look at that.

-These are the prettiest houses I've ever seen.

I think these must be the most beautiful Housing Association houses in all of Britain.

It's a far cry from what I'm used to investigating.

Single mum Claire Robson lives here with her family.

How did you end up in this incredible,

this incredible house on this incredible island?

I was born here, my mum was born here as well.

It took about two years to get this lovely house, of moving about.

The people who lived here

moved to the mainland, this house came up and I was high on the list.

I lived in lots of dodgy places.

I lived above the bike sheds opposite the old school for a bit,

-in sort of, one room!

-Yeah.

Where me and the kids slept in there, so I was lucky that this came up.

You would never think of moving to the mainland?

Um... It's a possibility,

but I think it's too difficult if I change my mind,

it would be too difficult to then move back to Scilly,

-so that's a big...

-You've got to keep a foot in the Scillies?

Yes, I think so, yeah.

It's absolutely beautiful, picturesque cottages.

No traffic on the roads.

Incredible plants in the garden.

Social housing in Scilly is not the same as anywhere else. Wow.

This morning certainly stands out as unique amongst my time

working with housing officers.

Later on, I'll be discovering there is another side to living life on the island.

You have to adapt to be able to live here.

Yeah, you can be cut off for, you know, four days because

the weather's so bad that there's no boats and no flights.

A safe and secure roof over our heads is a basic need for everyone,

but the number of homeless people living on the street is growing.

Government figures estimate more than 3,500 people sleeping on streets

in England alone on any one night.

But some groups think there may be many more.

Given the scale of the problem,

it's no surprise that here in Tendring,

housing officers like Rob Goswell and Ian Kavanagh

are sometimes tasked with trying to help those forced to

find shelter wherever they can.

We've had a complaint from a resident about a rough sleeper in

the communal area of their flat.

-Oh, right.

-It's quite concerning,

as from what I'm hearing on the description is that

it's actually down in a basement, no windows, no heating.

We're going to go down there and have a quick look...

-Yeah.

-..and see if we can find the person.

So, today, Rob and Ian are playing detective,

to investigate if there is anything they can do to help someone in need.

Like most good mysteries,

the best place to start is where he was last spotted -

the block of flats.

-Is it open?

-The lock has been damaged.

We just found out it's unlocked.

Anybody can just get in.

When I spoke to the landlord, they did assure us that it was...

-That's locked it now.

-Yeah.

So, it might be one of the reasons that they're getting in,

that they are holding the door,

sitting on the doorstep and holding the door.

So, then getting in.

This is really concerning, if they are holding the door.

It's probably very scary for many of the occupants,

as they won't know who's in the communal area.

It really impacts on their security to their own properties as well.

As well as adding things like fire issues and annoyances, such as

fly-tipping and rubbish being put in there.

What we're going to do, we're going to speak to the occupant now that's informed us,

and we're going to have a look.

If she does answer the door.

It's a shame that Ian locked the door,

as the resident who agreed to let them in doesn't seem to be responding.

You spoke to her, didn't you?

Well, it looks like she ain't in, which is typical.

Looks as if this investigation has finished before it's even started.

But just as our dynamic duo is about to call it a day...

Hello!

..the boys are finally let inside and see there's already been

an attempt to deal with the rough sleeper.

I believe the occupants put these bikes in front of there

to sort of deter them.

From what we've been told, this hasn't worked.

They've still gone in there.

You can see the lock's been damaged there, can't we?

Lock's been damaged.

It's been broken off its housing.

It's on the latch.

It's been put on the latch so it can't be closed.

If Rob and Ian needed any proof there was someone homeless living

in this basement, they've just found it.

I can already tell there's someone down there, I can smell it.

-It's a damp smell but something else.

-There's something else down there as well, yes.

Hello? Just make sure once more.

Hello?

I can see the mattress already.

Yeah.

-There is clear evidence.

-There is someone living down here.

Absolutely.

Once downstairs, Ian and Rob can see and smell

the true extent of the situation.

There's a lot of beer cans.

There's no access to water.

I can only assume that is human waste in there.

It's hard to imagine someone having to sleep in conditions like these.

We've got a twofold thing here, really, now.

We've got some poor soul rough sleeping down here and, also,

we've got the issue of fire safety

for the tenants here as well as the smell.

-It's not ideal.

-It's not desirable at all.

The bad smell might be an inconvenience,

but the risk of fire is unacceptable.

With the danger posed to the other tenants,

it's crucial that Rob and Ian find out

who the rough sleeper is as soon as possible.

Seems like a person that wants to look after themselves,

which might help.

Don't particularly want to touch anything.

Even for seasoned housing officers like Rob and Ian,

this is a depressing inspection.

Sockets, sump pump.

-Ah.

-We've got a sump pump down here, probably to drain that.

-But it doesn't appear to be working.

-OK, that's fine.

So, we may have another issue,

with all the stagnant water hanging around, we need to address that.

There are clear safety concerns,

and not just for the person who's having to sleep down here.

I'm actually worried about the people in this property.

Imagine if they're having a few drinks, smoking.

You could potentially have a fire here and it wouldn't be detected

until it was really raging.

That could cause an issue in terms of the whole block.

This is one of the main issues we have with rough sleeping here,

this is not safe, fire-wise.

Well, this isn't good conditions.

Apart from the fact it isn't ideal for someone to be living down here,

it's also a danger to the other tenants

who are actually supposed to be here.

It's a concerning situation that requires immediate attention.

As much as Ian and Rob want to help the basement dweller,

they also have to think about the safety and security of the building.

Sort of looking at it,

I think we need to get to talk to the landlord about making this fire sterile.

Yeah, we've got stuff on the means of escape, which we can't really have.

The likelihood of fire is already increased by someone being down there.

And then if you trip over a push-bike or cardboard box

-on the way out, you know, that's not good.

-Not good at all.

There are plenty of problems in the basement,

but, frustratingly, the guys are no closer to finding its new unwelcome tenant.

Later on, though, they find a potential new lead.

You live in the building? Right.

-I don't know if you know, there's a rough sleeper in your basement.

-Yeah.

Back on the Isles of Scilly,

I'm with Dave Hall from the Cornwall Rural Housing Association.

We're making our rounds across

some of their 27 social housing properties here,

which I have to say,

are a far cry from some of the places

I usually end up investigating.

It's not only the fact it's so beautiful,

it's the fact that there are so few people here to enjoy it.

With house prices that rival London

and some of the lowest wages in the country,

the Scillies can be a tough place to live if you're a local.

We've already seen how the lack of facilities can be a challenge to younger families.

We're taking a two-mile ferry trip from Hugh Town, on St Mary's,

to the neighbouring island of St Agnes,

which illustrates a further challenge -

this time, one of geography.

Why have properties outlying

when it's so much easier to have them based here,

in the middle of Hugh Town? Why not just leave them there?

That would be the easy way of doing it.

So, even on the little islands, there's still a housing need.

So, you've still got families, you've still got working people,

they still need somewhere to live.

So, we put houses out there

so people could have reasonable rented accommodation.

Even on a beautiful day like today, it's not hard to imagine how easily

islands like St Agnes can get cut off.

-This is the bit where it gets wet.

-OK. Time to go.

For a third of the year, it's too rough for this boat service to run.

Luckily, we managed to get ashore in one piece.

This really is something, isn't it?

But I'm beginning to wonder if I should have packed an extra pair of shoes.

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving it.

But come on! How much do you get done in a day?

This is, like, two knocks. That's all you're going to get done.

Yeah, you only get two visits.

It's a trek to reach the island's Housing Association homes.

But it's worth the effort.

I'm not kidding,

these are three of the loveliest properties I think I've seen.

-These are stunning.

-It's the only three we've got here.

But they're all needed.

Could have filled them ten times over with people who needed housing.

It's amazing, isn't it?

We got off the boat, it's full of holiday-makers.

You can't see this place as being anything other than a destination.

And yet, these must be, by definition,

people that have made their lives here.

Well, the chap who lives in the first one,

he's the guy that brought us on the boat.

-Really?

-John, driving the boat.

The second one, he runs a restaurant.

The one in the bungalow is a lady who has lived here her whole life.

-Shall we go and say hello?

-Shall we?

These properties might be beautiful,

but, in order for tenants to qualify,

they need to have a strong connection to St Agnes.

Mark and Emma run a restaurant here.

How did you end up here?

Well, we were living in a little flat.

We put our name down for housing.

You had to fit certain criteria.

We were really lucky enough to be able to get this

brilliant place to live.

A lot of people live in sheds, it's all really pricey if it is for sale.

You do have to put up with what there is.

Very often, we come across situations which you could class as survival,

where people are really having to struggle to survive.

Although this is a beautiful and comfortable house,

it feels like there's a degree of survival.

-You have to adapt.

-You can be cut off for days

because the weather's so bad that there's no boats, no flights.

It seems to me one of the things that social housing here is doing is

sustaining a community that's diverse and young.

Yeah, definitely.

The school at the moment have nine children.

A lot of people

go to St Mary's to school, and then they go to the mainland.

They do a few years on the mainland and then they want to come back.

Places like this, it's fabulous that people that want to come back

to live here, you know, in their home, can.

It's continuing on, the new generation is coming in.

It's just, yeah.

-Cheers, Mark. Take care.

-Thank you very much.

Affordable housing is vital for people on lower incomes

wherever they are, but here on the Scillies,

it's also about encouraging local people

to stay living and working here.

You know, that's a totally new one on me.

You know, a house of that quality being social housing,

really, I suppose. But I suppose it comes down to the need that there is

not just for that couple but also for the community.

If those houses weren't there, then those people would move away,

but with those people living there,

you've also got the people they employ,

and you've also got members of their family that come,

so you're not just building three houses and putting three people in.

You're adding everything together. You're building a bigger part of it.

-It's fantastic. Shall we go?

-Yep.

Maybe a short stop at the Turk's Head.

I think so, yeah.

Later, I'll see just how creative Dave and his team have become

in providing affordable housing on the Scillies.

It's incredible. I mean,

the last thing you expect is two fully formed little cottages

right in the middle of it.

Defending our right to a safe place to live is the job

of housing officers right across the UK.

It is unusual for us to find a tenanted property in this condition.

-You can smell that rubbish still, can't you, even from here?

-Yep.

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

You got insulted, we got kicked out.

-Yep.

-Bit of a red letter day, really, isn't it?

Hitting the streets, finding out what's happening on the front line...

You've done a great thing.

You've done a superb thing, you really have.

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

This place is clearly being plagued by rats.

Raw sewage in the back garden.

It's just apparent that this is not

an OK environment for anyone to live in.

One of the hardest roles of being a housing officer

is when the day comes to remove a tenant from their property.

Unfortunately, with the numbers of evictions increasing

by more than 50% in the past five years,

it's something that many housing officers across the UK

are now having to face.

There are many different reasons why it might become

necessary for someone to be forced from their home.

It's never easy for anyone involved.

And each situation presents its own set of challenges.

And today, here in Romford, Essex...

..this particularly difficult challenge falls to

housing officers Nadeem and Claire.

So, what's this next one, Claire?

They've actually been evicted for rent,

but this is the one that we've had a lot of unsocial behaviour from.

Oh, right, OK, yeah.

Falling behind with the rent is one thing,

but when it's coupled with serious anti-social behaviour,

councils are often left with little choice but to evict.

After several warnings about noise and aggressive behaviour,

the tenant at this property has now come to the end of the line.

How do you think he'll react?

Er, well...

Considering what the residents have told us,

it is possible that it could get slightly out of hand.

Hopefully it won't. I mean, we've never had any issues with him when we've visited.

But from the complaints of residents, you know,

with the sort of people that have been going in there,

from all sorts of issues.

You know, we need to be on the safe side just in case.

When dealing with an eviction,

housing officers know they could encounter violent situations.

To make sure they are safe,

Nadeem and Claire are being backed up by two bailiffs.

THEY KNOCK ON DOOR

Nobody's responding to the knock on the door, so it's time for plan B -

drilling the locks.

With the door finally forced open, the team can enter.

But they get a shock when they find someone's inside.

What is the state of that?

Fortunately for Claire and Nadeem,

it's not the tenant with a reputation for anti-social behaviour.

The person we found in here claims to be the tenant's friend, his girlfriend.

It seems they were celebrating a 21st birthday last night.

It must have been quite a party.

Well, as you can see, there is a lot of smoking and...

Nitrous oxide, are they?

-Yep.

-That's a new craze at the moment.

Mainly it's just cigarette butts and some joint ends.

Just drinking, really.

There's no evidence of any hard drugs as far we can see.

With the scene secure,

it's Nadeem and Claire's job to assess the condition

of the rest of the house.

Which is in quite a state.

It's obvious it wasn't just the impromptu party

that's caused all the damage.

There's a plug socket here with wires hanging loose.

There's a lot of damage to the door.

The disabled shower has got a lot of damage.

Water everywhere, so that's going to need a bit of tidying up and some

repairs to the structure of it.

The bedroom here, same thing, a lot of damage to the door.

And unfortunately, the bill for refurbishing this property is now

very likely to come out of the council's pocket.

It's a typical property we will find where there's drug and anti-social

behaviour going on,

people are just sort of using it as a den to drink and smoke,

that sort of thing.

So we're not surprised by the mess.

We did have reports of some violence going on in the property,

so we were probably expecting a bit more than this in terms of damage,

so we're...

Let's just say quite pleased that we haven't found more damage.

The kitchen is just a bit untidy.

We've got one cabinet door that's off its hinges.

Aside from that, it's in pretty good condition.

The washing up, as you can see, wasn't part

of their day-to-day routine, but we can deal with that.

That would just be quite straightforward.

As long as there's no major structural damage,

we're generally quite pleased. It could have been a lot worse.

With the property now repossessed,

Nadeem and Claire can concentrate on

returning it to a liveable condition.

And they've managed to avoid any unnecessary confrontation.

Probably really was actually a good thing that the tenant wasn't there,

because the tenant was known to cause quite a bit of trouble.

The most important thing with all evictions is getting the property back,

and we've managed to do that today, so the end result is a good one.

No matter what state we found it in, repairs can always be done.

As long as we get the property back, we're in a good position.

It's a nice property,

so it would be nice to have someone that'll look after it,

and it's a nice, quiet area.

It won't be long before the flat is re-let to someone in need of a home.

Let's hope they take more care of it than the last tenant.

After Claire and Nadeem successfully managed to reclaim the property,

the council have now completed work on bringing the flat

back into a good working order.

And it's now to be re-let to another,

more deserving tenant.

We all know that one of the roles of a housing officer is to try and get

people off the streets into safe and secure homes.

But another equally important part

is to try and keep people in their homes.

Sometimes that's not as easy as it sounds.

Especially when the tenant in question might be struggling.

For housing officers, it can be a difficult balance to pull off.

Keeping people in the place they've enjoyed and cherished for years,

but also making sure they're safe enough

to continue enjoying their lives.

Here in Stroud, I'm working with Luke Gibbs,

on the way to meet one of the council's older tenants.

Madeleine Kerr is 86,

and has enjoyed her home for a number of years,

but as she gets older, the property might need a few changes.

We're looking at an existing ramp,

some handrails and things like that, to try and make her life easier,

and also, more importantly safer for her.

So we're going to meet her daughter,

who's a lovely lady who I spoke to

on the phone the other day called Margaret.

Daughter Margaret lives nearby, and helps keep an eye on her mum.

But a recent fall has made her

a little more concerned for her mum's safety.

That's where Luke comes in.

Well, if you can see where you are now,

there's a change in level there.

She'll come down here and then she's getting into the car.

-OK, right.

-And then stumbles over the edge of the path.

Yeah, because it's uneven.

And is she all right with this step as well?

Mrs Kerr has also been diagnosed with dementia,

but Margaret's hoping that, with a few adaptations to the property,

her mum can remain independent for as long as possible.

Is that your walker there?

-Is that what?

-Is that your walker?

-What?

-Your machine there.

-That's your trolley, isn't it?

-Who does that belong to?

-That's yours.

-Well, they never tell me.

-I didn't know that!

-Just interesting to see that coming out.

It's just goes over the top, and then it'll just run...

Go on, Margaret.

It'll go right round.

So usually, she can't use this without me or my sister.

-Yeah.

-That is an issue.

-You've got the lump,

and then you've got a slope straightaway afterwards,

so you could easily find yourself...

Pushing on when you don't want to.

-I just go as I am and see!

-Fair enough.

Although Mrs Kerr's dementia has clearly not slowed her down,

her recent fall is a concern.

Looking round the place,

it's understandable why the family wants her to remain here.

Is it a nice place to live?

Oh, it's grand. It's beautiful.

The canal's just at the back.

-Is it?

-Yes, yeah.

Do you ever sit and watch the ducks and sit and look at the canal?

No, I haven't got to that stage yet!

Well, ask a silly question.

Because the house contains so many memories for Mrs Kerr,

you can also see why Luke is so keen

to do his best to help her stay here.

Who are these guys here?

-That's me.

-Is that you there in the middle?

-That's me, yeah.

-Wow, look at that.

-I was a big girl then.

And then we've got this very handsome chap here with his beret.

-Who's that?

-Come on, who's that?

I don't know. I'm trying to ask you.

You spent years writing to him.

That's Dad.

-That's Dad.

-Is that Dad?

-When he was in the Army.

Oh, yes, I know he was in the Army.

And then who's this lovely couple here?

I've never seen them before!

Never seen them before, have you, Margaret?

-No, no.

-You don't know who they are?

-Look at the size of that bouquet.

-Yes, look at it.

Look at that. And the big horseshoe.

-It weighed a tonne.

-Did it?

Luke and his team are hoping they can make

some important changes to Mrs Kerr's house

without losing what made the place a home.

So, things like this, the adaptations that hopefully are going to be made,

what sort of difference do they make to your mum and to you

looking after her?

Well, that front will be a really big one.

Because I do think sometimes if I forget to shut the garden gate,

she would go out to shut it.

Everything has to be tidy.

And I think that's why she was outside when she fell in February.

She was shutting the garden gate, because I left it open.

So that would be a big relief.

At least she'll be on a level surface.

Is your aim to keep your mum here for as long as possible?

As long as possible.

-Yeah.

-As long as possible.

We can bring the care in to her.

-As much as possible.

-With familiar surroundings.

She's very happy here. She wants to stay here.

I wish you the very best with it and it's lovely to meet you, Margaret.

And the support, you see, family support is important as well.

-Get them all involved.

-As many as possible.

-Yeah.

Well, the good news is, after Luke and his team got to work,

the new ramp and handrail were quickly put in place.

He is now back with trainee contracts officer Becky

to see if it meets with both Margaret and her mum's approval.

-Hello.

-We've come to have a little look.

-Here's the queen of the show.

-Are you coming to watch me?

Yeah, we've come to have a little look.

-Do you like it?

-Oh, yeah, of course I do.

Very nice. Yes. Yes, very good.

Can we see you come out with the walker?

-Just going round the caravan.

-We just want to see what it's like.

It'll just run down, it'll just run away.

-No, no, it won't.

-Oh, how do you know, then?

I do. I know everything!

I'm just going to let it go and I'll be off down the road.

Yeah, that's good.

-That's a lot easier, isn't it?

-It is.

-Yeah, brilliant.

It might be just a small step for Mrs Kerr,

but it's a giant leap for Margaret,

knowing her mum can continue enjoying life safely in her own home.

And you've got your nice handrails out there.

Oh, right. OK.

And your nice new path and your nice new door.

And who did all that? Oh, thank you very much.

Not me personally, no!

-The District Council.

-I can't take all the glory.

-Your landlord.

-Can you put the kettle on, Margaret?

I will, yes. I'll put the kettle on.

-Polly put the kettle on.

-Yes.

Back in Essex, Rob and Ian are on the case, investigating reports

of a rough sleeper living in hazardous conditions

and potentially being a danger to the building's occupants.

-I can see the mattress already.

-Yeah.

There is no access to water,

and you can only assume that's human waste in there.

You could potentially have a fire here and it wouldn't be detected

until it was really raging.

Although they've made a number of worrying discoveries

at the property, they're none the wiser to finding out

who or where the rough sleeper is.

Until, that is, a chance meeting outside.

You live in the building? Right, OK. What we're here to talk about, I don't know if you know,

there's a rough sleeper in your basement.

Yes, basically, the smell that came up from the basement has been going

into the building. It was so, like, nasty,

that we just basically went to

check down there and we saw him sleeping down there

and basically said to him, "You can't stay down here."

I did realise, because he used to sit there a lot, all the time,

a lot of the homeless people do sit there.

A lot of the drunks and that sit there.

And I noticed that when people go in, he holds the door.

I thought that was happening.

I wasn't totally sure, but that's exactly what I suspected.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to ask your landlord to change

the weighting on your self closer

so it kind of closes up a little bit more.

And as I say, change that lock on there,

remove the stuff that's down there.

There is a pump down there that gets rid of the stuff,

so maybe get that back up and running again,

and just get rid of the smell for you guys, you know.

-Definitely, yeah.

-And just make sure it's safe.

-Yeah, definitely.

-Yeah, well, thanks for that,

-that really helped.

-Cheers.

-Thanks a lot. Bye.

With a plan in place to protect the property,

Rob and Ian's attention turns back

to the location of the rough sleeper.

It seems he's now no longer using the basement as a bedroom.

We've just had a chat with the occupant,

and she believes he's moved on further around,

so it's a little bit above, about our remit,

but it might help us learn a little bit more information,

and we feel like it's a little bit of a duty, really, you know.

The last thing we want is for him to go back in there, so we feel like if we talk to him,

it might be a little bit easier,

we can find out what's going on and hopefully find him somewhere

and we can deal with this situation.

Based on the tenant's tip-off,

they head down to the location of the latest sighting.

I reckon they've moved down to the seafront, myself.

It definitely looks like we've got some evidence here of some rough

sleepers. There seems to be some cardboard there in the corner,

food, cans, blankets.

Yeah, they tend to use the cardboard as, like, a pallet to lie on,

they put their sleeping bag on there.

But judging by the big puddle that's there, I reckon they've moved off.

-It feels like we're always one step behind, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

Unfortunately, it seems the trail's gone cold.

Although searching for a rough sleeper is not strictly

part of Rob and Ian's job description,

with homelessness on the rise, that might soon change.

For now, all they can do is try to ensure the basement of the block

of flats doesn't turn back into a dangerous bedroom.

The reason why we're involved here is that no-one should be living in

these conditions, so we can try and look to speak to the landlord,

make sure that they can try and know what's going on,

and try and liaise with them potentially.

And if they don't sort of work with us,

then we have a number of powers we can to stop this from happening

and to try to kind of stop this from happening in the future as well.

But the boys haven't given up on trying to find the man in need.

A few days later, Ian's back on the streets to see if he's showed up

again at his usual haunts.

That's locked.

And they're probably not here now.

Entry to the flats seems a lot more secure,

which just leaves location number two.

That looks like he's not there any more.

As much as Ian and Rob want to help,

there's not much they can do if they can't find him.

He's obviously moved on. Where to, we don't know as yet,

but I'll probably have a word with our homeless team,

see if they've heard where he's moved to.

But most likely thing is

we'll probably pick him up again when somebody makes a phone call

or something to us to complain that there's somebody

sleeping rough somewhere.

Well, the homeless team did eventually find the rough sleeper,

but unfortunately, after an initial chat about how to help him further,

he's not been seen in the area since.

Not the outcome Rob and Ian would have wanted,

and with the number of homeless people on our streets increasing,

it demonstrates yet again the difficult task

faced by housing officers across the UK.

'We've flown, we've sailed...'

-Is this where it gets wet?

-OK! Time to go!

'..and used a bit of shoe leather...'

Where's your car, then?

'..through one of the most remote parts of the country - the Isles of Scilly,

'where housing maintenance officer David has been showing me some unique Housing Association homes.'

You're not kidding.

These are three of the loveliest properties I think I've seen.

These are stunning.

'But low wages coupled with high property prices mean it can be

'tricky if you live here full-time.'

That is the reward you get, isn't it,

for choosing to live somewhere this remote?

You get that at the end of every day. That's the most amazing view.

It really is. But then you have to have the survival skills.

You have to take on two, three, four jobs,

and you have to cope with what is

a real shortage of accommodation for these guys.

I suppose everybody deserves to live somewhere,

and why shouldn't you live here?

Why shouldn't you build social housing on places like this?

Why indeed?

Social housing helps keep an essential core community here

who might otherwise be forced to move to the mainland.

Yeah, that's it. Done that, done that.

We're heading back to the largest of the Scilly Isles.

There is such a high demand for homes on St Mary's that

the Housing Association are now building extra properties,

and converting existing buildings.

So, what have we got here?

This used to be a boat-building yard which became derelict.

So how did you get in there ahead of commercial concerns?

That's the bit that interests me.

Because this is like prime real estate.

We applied to the council.

They say this place is up for further development,

but they don't want it done as a selling or a holiday,

they wanted social housing.

They wanted rented accommodation for local people.

Let's see if anybody's in, shall we?

More affordable housing can also support locals who find themselves

in difficulty through illness.

-Doreen? Hi, sorry to come unannounced.

-That's all right.

Doreen has spent much of her adult life on the Scillies.

She moved to this bungalow eight months ago,

and is recovering from a hip replacement.

What sort of difference has it made living in this property?

Oh, a tremendous difference.

If you saw the other place I was in, it was so damp and cold.

This place, it's so warm, really, it's lovely and warm.

I'm just trying to imagine what it's like if you do get ill here,

and that distance between here and maybe the treatment that you need.

Well, it's the transport, getting backwards and forwards.

Oh, it's... I mean, I had a really traumatic time.

I actually was going to move to the mainland.

Hopefully I'm not going to be poorly any more, touch wood.

Touch wood, touch wood!

You would rather be in Scilly?

-Why? What is it about this place?

-Oh, it's just lovely.

You feel so safe.

It's nice to think that somebody is building property

that people can afford to live in.

I mean, quite often the houses are being built,

and they're so expensive, you couldn't dream of buying them.

Thank you so much for having us here.

That's all right. My pleasure.

Cheers now. It's incredible.

The last thing you expect is two fully formed little cottages

right in the middle of it. They're incredible.

It's amazing that they squeeze them in.

But you've got two full-size houses,

and two more people that can stay on the island.

I suppose, when you're making these decisions about what you want here,

you know, tourism is well looked after, really, isn't it?

-Yes.

-You know, there will always be people who will buy houses and let

them out again. But then preventing Doreen from having to go back to

the mainland, this means she can stay amongst her family,

her loved ones, you know, for a bit longer, at least.

Yeah, so she's here, all her family's still here, her daughters,

her granddaughters. And yes, she gets to stay here even longer.

Dave, it's been a fantastic day on Scilly.

I feel like I know it intimately now!

I mean, I know there's not a lot of it, but, yeah, certainly,

I know more than I did before we started.

-Thank you so much.

-Any time, any time.

-Cheers.

Well, it certainly feels very different

from any other day on Housing Enforcers.

But it's been fascinating to accompany Dave on his rounds,

to discover the needs of locals in this part of the world.

And to find out that just because the view from your window is

picturesque, it doesn't necessarily mean that housing challenges

are any less demanding.

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.