01/09/2014 Inside Out South East

Desperate to buy a home,

but what effect is the Help to Buy scheme having in Medway Towns?

Help to Buy, I think, is dangerous

because it fuels an expectation that prices are going to keep rising.

Is the historic Bluebell Railway in Sussex finally going places?

This is not just about amateurs playing trains.

We like to think of ourselves as professionals.

And the way that criminals are stealing your PIN number.

I'd like to ask you a couple of questions, actually, about your

involvement in Chip and PIN fraud.

Don't run us over.

Are you making a lot of money out of it?

Are you making a lot of money out of it?

I'm Natalie Graham, with untold stories closer to home.

From all around the south`east, this is Inside Out.

Hello and welcome back to a brand new series of Inside Out.

We are at Rochester Castle in the Medway Towns where we've

been looking at the government's Help to Buy scheme.

Now, the scheme may have made it possible for some young people to

get on the housing ladder but has it also fuelled a steep rise

in house prices in the south`east, making the dream of owning a home

impossible for others?

Rachel Royce examines the pros and cons.

OK, so this is the house you're looking at today.

Living with Mum and Dad isn't most young couples' idea of fun but for

Layla Fitzgerald and Bradley Devaney the arrangement has its perks.

But the couple admit that by now they are keen to move

into a house of their own.

So, three years with Mum and Dad. What's that been like?

It's had its positives and negatives. I really like it.

Because I like living with my mum and dad and having them doing

my washing and tidying up by house when they come home from work.

my washing and tidying up my house when they come home from work.

But for the age that we are and the friends that we've got it's hard

for us to sort of have friends down.

They've spent three years saving up for a deposit to buy their own home.

They are looking around Rochester.

You are using the government's Help to Buy scheme.

Yeah, with the mortgage that he had agreed,

that is through the government Help to Buy scheme so we've got

off 5% and then I believe that they underwrite it so they guarantee that

if anything goes wrong with us, they guarantee our mortgage.

It's the global financial crash of 2008 that lies

behind the government's decision to step into the housing market.

Banks and building societies became fearful of lending money.

This was bad news for house`buyers.

Mortgage lenders, who in the past had demanded just 5% for a

deposit on a house, now wanted 25%.

The housing market went into a serious slump.

So the government launched a scheme to kick`start the market.

It was called Help to Buy.

Help to Buy is controversial but some experts support it.

You've got all this interesting data over here

which tells us what is going on.

Doug McWilliams is from the Centre for Economic and Business Research.

There has been an impact on confidence and there has also

been an impact on distribution of who has got the chance to buy

houses because it has given a good chance to first`time buyers

who don't have wealthy parents.

Up until now, the only people who really had

a chance to get into the first`time buyer market are people who have

saved for really quite a long time or those with wealthy parents.

Without Help to Buy, Brad and Layla would have been

looking at having to find a ?30,000 deposit for their first home.

They say it would have taken them ten years to save up.

Instead, today they are able to start seriously house`hunting with

a deposit of ?7,000.

They have narrowed their search down to Sydney Road near Chatham.

They hope to find a house on the side of the street with river views

from the back for around 120,000.

The Help to Buy scheme also encourages builders to build.

Here, at a brand`new development at Horsted Park in Chatham,

Help to Buy is being used to help sell.

So it works like this `

the buyer just has to come up with a 5% deposit, the government stumps

up a hefty 20% in the form of an interest`free loan, the mortgage is

for 75% of the property price and then hopefully you can move in.

The government says its scheme is working, with house`building now

at the highest rate since 2007.

One buyer who has bought a new home this week is Nishka Patel.

We looked at this house and we thought we'd never be able to

afford it.

Then we heard about Help to Buy and we thought, brilliant.

We came back and we thought, yeah, this is the house we want.

What sort of price is this house?

Around the 400,000 mark.

Otherwise you would have been looking at what?

About 300,000.

OK, so come in. This is our three`bedroom type.

Feels very spacious.

It's 1200 square feet, actually, which is a pretty good size.

Andrew Loveday is the sales and marketing director

of Countryside, the developers who build Nishka's and the other homes

here at Horsted Park.

At the moment, they are building 1000 homes a year,

but plan for more.

We currently have three developments on the market in Medway Towns.

We are planning the release of around about another three or

four developments over the next 2`3 years.

Actually, over the next five years, we will be producing around about

1500 homes in the Medway Towns area.

Do you think you would be building as many houses as you are if it

wasn't for Help to Buy?

It would be happening but probably at a much slower rate.

But there could be one big snag with the scheme and that's that some

experts say it is forcing up house prices and they say that is making

property even more unaffordable for first`time buyers `

the very problem the scheme is trying to solve.

Despite a slight cooling on prices reported last month, they

have risen on average by around 8.5% in the south`east in the past year.

In some property hotspots in London, prices have risen 25% in two years.

The average price of a house now in the south`east is ?290,000.

In London, it is close to half a million.

Rob Wood is the chief economist at Berenberg Bank and is

a fierce critic of Help to Buy.

Help to Buy, I think, is dangerous

because it fuels an expectation that prices are going to keep rising and

that can encourage all sorts of odd behaviour in the housing market.

You might feel you have to rush to buy a house now

in case they get more expensive tomorrow and that's the sort

of behaviour that starts a bubble.

House prices across the UK are very expensive internationally and

compared to our history, if we look in the south`east around Brighton,

for instance, prices are around ten times typical earnings there.

Brad and Layla are looking at their second house of the day.

The first one they looked at had 37 viewings in one hour.

This one is a two`bedroom house just around the corner.

Is there a fire behind there? There is, yes.

It's a fireplace you like, isn't it? Yes, it was.

Fireplaces are pretty important.

The house looks promising at first but it has crooked walls and

when they go outside they discover there is only a tiny courtyard.

Oh, is that it?

Do you every worry that because you are buying now when

everyone has Help to Buy mortgages that you are buying at wrong time,

that you might be buying at too high a price?

Not really. It's a bit of this and that,

We need to buy something somewhere and it's just

so happens that the scheme is happening at the same time everyone

else is given the same opportunity.

So I don't know, what do we do, do we wait and they stop the scheme

and then we are in a position where we can't afford to buy?

So, has the scheme helped or made things worse?

The Bank of England is asking that very question and will be reviewing

its findings at the end of this month.

I think it's a mistake to keep Help to Buy going.

I think it should be wound down over the next 6`12 months.

The problem it was trying to fix, that low deposit mortgages were not

widely available, that is more or less fixed now.

Don't fiddle too much because if you fiddle too much the thing you could

destroy is investor confidence.

Investor confidence is going to create the housing supply that will

automatically deal with the housing shortage.

If you don't deal with the housing shortage,

house prices are bound to be high.

Opinion is sharply divided on Help to Buy but Brad and Layla are one

couple the scheme has helped.

It has been the leg up onto the property ladder they

desperately wanted.

They have put an offer in on a house in Sydney Road

and it's been accepted.

They are hoping to move in soon to their first home of their own.

Rachel Royce reporting.

Coming up on Inside Out...

It's a Chip and PIN machine.

Once you swipe it, the data has already been saved

from the first swipe but when you enter the PIN, the PIN is

stored and now that is there.

Well, it used to be that one Sussex railway never went anywhere

in particular. But now things are picking up

in particular. But now things are picking up.

A quarter of a million visitors came to the Bluebell in the year after

the reconnection to the mainline.

That is up 60,000 from the previous year.

Two years ago, we were a ?3 million business.

Last year, we were a ?4 million business.

This is not just about amateurs playing trains.

We like to think of ourselves as professionals.

But can the Bluebell cope with its success or will the increase

in numbers change the very things that visitors

and volunteers love about the line?

Nobody knew what was going to happen once we got to East Grinstead.

We knew it would maybe get a bit busier but we didn't realise

it would get as busy as it has.

But how did what was once a quiet rural branch turn itself into a

multi`million pound success story?

British Railways first tried to close the line from East Grinstead

to Lewis back in 1954.

But a battling local resident, Margery Bessemer, discovered that

the original Parliamentary Act that created the line said it was

a statutory service and British Rail were forced to reopen it.

However, a reluctant British Rail only ran trains at times that were

of no use to commuters or shoppers so, as the line was little used,

they got approval from Parliament in 1958 to close it again.

And that is when a band of local enthusiasts stepped in.

We held a meeting and over 100 people attended it

and the idea was to preserve the puffer for posterity.

When the Bluebell Society ran its first train

on the seventh of August 1960,

it became the first preserved standard gauge steam

operated passenger railway in the world to operate a public service.

It is the very success of the newly reconnected Bluebell

that is changing things for both the visitors and the volunteers

who keep the line running.

It's 6am on a Saturday morning and, while most of us are still enjoying

a lie in, the volunteered drivers of the Bluebell Railway are already

a lie in, the volunteer drivers of the Bluebell Railway are already

at work in the engine sheds preparing for one of

the busiest weekends of the year.

With a steam engine, you can't just flick

the on/off switch and head off.

They have to be gently coaxed into life.

It's basically oiling up the whole of the motion,

checking all the moving parts.

It's the full fitness to run.

It takes us two or three hours to get the engine ready in the morning.

In spite of greater success, the railway still needs volunteers

to be economically viable.

What do they think about the changes the reconnection has brought?

Now we are reconnected to East Grinstead, from my point of view,

working on the engines is a longer day with more miles to cover but we

can only generally do 12 hours so we have to fit a lot more in the day.

Because we don't want to upset the new neighbours at

East Grinstead, we have to try and keep the engines as quiet as

possible when we are up there, which some of us, myself included, seem to

find a bit difficult sometimes.

The fact that we actually go somewhere now.

In the past we have gone from nowhere to nowhere.

But now we have actually got a mainline connection to

East Grinstead, it's part of our job to keep the schedule now.

It's not just the drivers, of course.

There are hundreds of station staff, signalmen and guards.

And they are making adjustments to the new era of professionalism

at the Bluebell.

People come here for the day and they want to enjoy themselves and

they don't understand that we have to keep to a set timetable.

They think they can just turn up and get on

and the train will go whenever they are ready but I'm afraid we have to

keep to a strict timetable.

Recognising changes were needed, the Bluebell brought

in a man with an impressive track record in the railway industry.

Former Irish Rail CEO Dick Fearn is the man charged with taking

the business forward.

Is it difficult balancing that need to become more professional

with keeping the volunteers happy who have worked here for years?

I don't think it's too difficult.

I think it is possible for people to enjoy

their contribution to the Bluebell.

It is a hobby.

For most of those colleagues it as a hobby.

They come here and they want to have great pleasure

in carrying out their hobby.

Of course, we also must make it very pleasurable

for the people who are spending very good money to come and visit us.

Bluebell is a business that can only survive it can rely on the support

support

of a happy volunteer workforce and while

the new chairman works out how to keep the delicate balance between

professionalism and fun, operations manager Chris Knibbs has

some more practical problems to face as increased numbers have an impact

on the ancient trains and carriages.

There is now an increase in mileage on the locomotives and rolling stock

so we have to maintain those to a certain amount of mileage or days

running so we have had to adjust all of that and there is quite

a lot involved in it.

It has changed the railway quite considerably.

Last year, because of the number of passengers,

you had to lay on some diesels.

Is that what the Bluebell Railway is really about?

I mean, you know, Bluebell is synonymous with the steam train

so we try our absolute best to make sure that is what they get but it is

important to run a service and if it is either no service or a service

with a diesel, we will run a service with a diesel.

But can the public ever be as enthusiastic about an old diesel

engine as they are about the Bluebell's steam locomotives?

Diesels, I'm afraid I can't work up any enthusiasm for them.

But many people, younger people after my generation, probably can.

I don't know.

It excites every sense, doesn't it?

The look of it, the sound of it, the smell of it.

Ah. Wonderful.

I like to see a good steam engine, I must say.

A nice boiling kettle on rails is interesting.

40% of visitors now come down the main line to East Grinstead and

that has had a positive effect on the town because many of them are

choosing to spend their money there.

It certainly has, on lovely days like today, it does attract more

people into the town.

It's obviously a very positive thing for

East Grinstead and the High Street.

Since its creation, the Bluebell has changed from a

project run by a band of enthusiasts to a multi`million pound business.

Change is still underway and volunteers and chairman alike

are adjusting to the new culture of strict timetables, long days,

more professionalism and the occasional diesel,

as well as making plans for an even bigger future.

We do have another possible extension we can do

and that is westwards ultimately to Hayward's Heath and the main line.

While the Bluebell grapples with the problems created

by its increasing success, our crossgenerational love affair with

steam shows no sign of dying out.

So the Bluebell Railway budgets have to find a way to cope with being

so popular.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Now, hundreds of people in Kent and Sussex are targeted every year

by fraudsters bent on stealing our credit card details

and PIN numbers.

So for the last nine months, Inside Out's Jonathan Gibson has

been infiltrating one criminal gang which has been using Chip and PIN

machines to empty our accounts.

It's Friday night and for most of us the weekend has started.

Me included.

A few drinks and some food out and, if like me you've never got

cash, a card comes in handy.

For ten years now, we have all been using these ` Chip and PIN machines.

And the place I've come for dinner is no different.

Remember when we used to sign for things in shops?

The banks told us Chip and PIN would be much safer.

Try telling Julie Cleaver that.

We went to buy fuel at a petrol station and there was a camera set

up in the ceiling that was looking down onto the machine and recording

us as we put in our PIN numbers.

The thieves who stole her cash were caught red`handed.

But a quick look online shows there are many more victims.

That is the thing with the internet, there are other good people

on there, like the innocent victims.

And then there are the bad.

I'm talking to a man who knows all about stolen

PIN numbers because he steals them.

And he's looking for a new partner.

Why not?

Funnily enough, I haven't mentioned I'm a journalist.

He thinks I own a restaurant with card`paying customers.

But I need to gain his trust and that is taking months.

But one day he tells me a parcel is in the post.

It's a Chip and PIN machine.

I've already spent months gaining this criminal's confidence but he

still doesn't trust me completely.

He has finally agreed to chat but he is banking on staying

anonymous over the internet.

We'll see about that.

Press F1 then 1.

He tells me the machine he's sent me remembers people's card numbers.

Once you've swiped it, the data has already been saved from

the first swipe but now when they enter the PIN, the PIN is stored

and now all the data is there.

That's everything he needs to steal people's cash.

Do it like how the restaurant's receipt looks

because it's fully customisable.

He has told me to put this error message on the bottom

of the receipt so my customers will think the machine is not working.

That is so I can swap it for my normal one to take

their real payment.

What I now need to work out is a way of putting that to the test.

I think I have found the answer.

Pay`as`you`go debit cards.

They are a bit like mobile phone top`ups.

You can only spend what you put on them.

I've bought 20 to try out.

I need him to think they belong to my customers.

But will it work?

He has told me I need to download the data using some

cables he sent me in the post.

Can you just plug that into your laptop?

A couple more connections and we are ready to rock.

Is it downloading?

Yeah, it's receiving stuff.

When it is done, just send me that file.

Look at this.

He has just e`mailed me through the rest of the card numbers

and the PINs that go with them.

These cards here.

In a couple of minutes, he has got everything he needs to make exact

copies of all these cards, which he can then use in cashpoints.

He says he has done that already, time and time again.

Remember Julie?

She had her card cloned at the garage.

I want to show her how Chip and PIN fraud has moved on.

Here's the receipt. What do you think?

Wow. It is just the real thing, isn't

If I was in a restaurant and they gave me this, I would accept

that my payment had been cancelled, none the wiser.

If Julie is shocked, what will the banks think?

I think the encouraging thing is that these frauds are very rare.

We have only seen one recent instance of them and we are seeing

convictions in the Old Bailey in respect of that at the moment.

We know that the industry's existing advice to

consumers is to protect your PIN.

With something like that, there is no point, is there?

It is the device itself that takes that PIN number.

I think the first reassurance to give everybody when it comes to this

type of fraud, which is very rare, is that even if you are

the victim of it, you will receive a full refund of all of your losses.

With this type of fraud, in common with other ones as well,

we always advise consumers to check their statements.

I am about to do just that.

As all the pay`as`you`go debit cards are in

my name, it also means I can check what has been happening to them.

Take these two, for example.

They have never left my wallet but according to the transaction

history they have been emptied of cash in the Philippines.

So either he is stealing my money or someone he knows is.

But he has also sent me a second machine,

so at least he is not suspicious.

But who is he?

He is taking cash out in the Philippines

but the machines came from Britain.

I have also sent money to Canada for the cables he has posted.

I'm not sure that has really helped.

He could be on either side of the world.

OK, time to change tactics.

How about I tell him I've broken the machine?

I'm hoping he'll ask me to send it for repair and

if he trusts me enough he might give me an address, although it might not

be his, of course.

Bingo.

He has taken the bait, telling me to send it to

Marcus Montague in Canada.

He is the guy I paid for the cables.

But this is one parcel I plan to deliver by hand.

Bags packed, passports checked, let's go find him.

Toronto, Canada.

I am heading out of town, 25 miles along the freeway to Pickering.

Is the guy that we've been given the address for the guy that has

been on Skype that we been talking to for, what, months now?

But there is only one way to be sure and that means me playing postie.

Yes, we are happy to help at TRM Couriers.

OK, so the accent needs work but I'm hoping the uniform will shine.

We've put a tracker inside the machine.

Oh, and I'm wearing a secret camera.

Yeah, it's Marcus Montague and he signed

our fake delivery note to prove it.

It's time to confront him.

Don't hit him.

HORN BEEPS

I've got a delivery for you, mate.

Delivery for you.

I can't accept that, I don't know about it, you know?

Right, OK.

It's time to come clean.

Actually, I'm from the BBC.

BBC Television in the UK.

I'd like to ask you a couple of questions, actually, about your

involvement in Chip and PIN fraud.

Chip and PIN fraud, mate, do you know about it?

No.

I think you do because we've been sending deliveries to your address

and you've been taking them.

No, I haven't.

Don't go away, mate.

We're asking you a few questions here.

Don't run us over.

I'm not going to run you over. I don't know what going on.

I just need to know your involvement with Chip and PIN fraud.

Who are you actually involved with, then?

You guys are scaring me.

Who are you actually working with?

Are you making a lot of money out of it?

Are you making a lot of money out of it?

Well, not many answers.

Raised a few more questions, perhaps.

But whatever the case, he wasn't very keen to hang around, was he?

I think that's probably the last we'll see of him.

At least for now.

Can I have a couple of pounds of plums and some apples as well?

Back home, I'm still in the market for answers.

But VeriFone, which makes the machines,

doesn't want to be interviewed.

I wanted to show it our evidence.

It decided on a statement.

VeriFone says the fraud is not a result of tampering with VeriFone

devices,

and requires the collusion of two criminals.

The company says it takes the security

of consumer data very seriously,

it works with authorities to uncover fraud,

and its machines are not to blame.

Put your PIN in, please, mate.

You know what, mate? I think I'll leave it.

Now, if you want any more information

about tonight's show then you can visit our Kent or Sussex websites.

You can watch the whole programme again on iPlayer.

Just go to bbc.co.uk/insideout.

Coming up next week, should BPA plastic

in our food packaging be banned?

We are not waiting until we see the damage.

We are just doing this in order to protect the people, the citizens.

Top model then turned war photographer.

Lee Miller's life at Farley Farm in Sussex.

She gave the impression of being a useless drunk.

I was astonished when my late wife Susannah found this stash that

contained most of Lee's work.

And getting to the bottom of the sewage problem in Thanet

this summer.

Nobody really wants to talk about these horrible things.

We flush and forget and then tend to think everything is the

responsibility of the water company.

That's it from us for tonight from Rochester.

Thanks for watching. See you next week.

Hello, I'm Ellie Crisell with your 90 Second Update.

The parents of seriously ill Ashya King are tonight in a Spanish

jail as they fight extradition.

They were arrested after removing him from a Southampton hospital.

The family say they did it to get alternative cancer treatment.

New Government measures to try to stop Britons going to fight in Syria

and Iraq.

Police will be able to seize passports before they travel.

But there's no deal yet on stopping them returning here.

Fractions and computer coding.

Five-year-olds in England will now be learning them at school.

It's part of new curriculum changes - some

teachers argue they're unrealistic.

Nude photos of celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence have

been leaked online.

It's after an apparent hack.

Some stars say they're fake.

The Hunger Games actress is taking legal action.

Three hours left on football transfer deadline day.

Manchester United's splashed more cash.