:00:21. > :00:23.Good evening. A year since the Government
:00:24. > :00:26.introduced changes to housing benefit, figures obtained bx the BBC
:00:27. > :00:30.suggest thousands in our region are going into rent arrears for the
:00:31. > :00:32.first time, and few have actually moved. The policy reduces bdnefit
:00:33. > :00:37.payments for social housing tenants if they have more rooms than they
:00:38. > :00:38.need. Of 529,000 social housing tenants in this region, just under
:00:39. > :00:46.10%, around 50,000 have been affected by the changes. And out of
:00:47. > :00:56.that figure, around 1.5% have actually moved. Just 873 tenants.
:00:57. > :01:02.I hope there is enough, bec`use I have so much stuff. Packing up and
:01:03. > :01:08.preparing to leave. June and moved to this three`bedroom house after a
:01:09. > :01:12.brain operation three years ago but her sons have since moved ott, and
:01:13. > :01:19.now her Housing Benefit is being cut. She can't afford the extra ?52
:01:20. > :01:24.a week. I understand that pdople need houses, but I am so mad that
:01:25. > :01:29.they are making us all move. The idea is to free up your properties
:01:30. > :01:33.to help people like Emma Bennett and her family. She was in a two bed
:01:34. > :01:39.property with two children, and now has a three bed house. My children
:01:40. > :01:44.are far happier. They have ` room each. I remember having to share a
:01:45. > :01:50.room, and it is not fun, especially with a boy. I daughter is vdry
:01:51. > :01:55.happy, and so is my son. So is it working? Research by the BBC
:01:56. > :01:59.suggests that in the east, just 873 social tenants have moved ott or
:02:00. > :02:04.downsized, yet it has pushed more than 11,000 into rent arrears for
:02:05. > :02:08.the first time since last April That is despite almost ?5.5 million
:02:09. > :02:12.being spent here to tide thdm over until they move out. That is why
:02:13. > :02:17.critics call it the bedroom tax The Government says the old system was
:02:18. > :02:22.subsidising spare rooms. If you are the tax payer, paying for pdople to
:02:23. > :02:26.be on Housing Benefit, many of those cannot have spare bedrooms hn their
:02:27. > :02:31.house, so how can they be p`ying for other people do have that? H think
:02:32. > :02:39.about 20% of our tenants were not in arrears.
:02:40. > :02:48.Some councils have evicted tenants for getting behind on their rent.
:02:49. > :02:54.Nearly 200 have moved. We h`ve circuits of people moving, `nd they
:02:55. > :02:59.have all been beneficial moves, so we haven't conjured up lots of extra
:03:00. > :03:03.properties. We have a limitdd stock, and we make the best use of the
:03:04. > :03:06.stocks that we have. The Government says the changes are saving money,
:03:07. > :03:09.but Labour says it would scrap the policy, one that remains as
:03:10. > :03:11.controversial as well it was introduced year ago.
:03:12. > :03:16.Two people have been arrestdd in Luton on suspicion of human
:03:17. > :03:19.trafficking. Officers went to a property in Farley Hill following a
:03:20. > :03:22.tip`off from the public. Earlier I spoke to our reporter Stuart
:03:23. > :03:28.Ratcliffe and asked him for the details.
:03:29. > :03:31.Today, Bedfordshire police released information about a raid thdy
:03:32. > :03:38.carried out yesterday in crossways, which is in the Farley Hill area of
:03:39. > :03:41.Luton. They found two women in their late teens, and it is thought they
:03:42. > :03:59.are handy Aryan, possible vhctims of trafficking scam. `` Hund ``
:04:00. > :04:04.Hungarian women. Men have bden arrested and are now being
:04:05. > :04:07.questioned. The serious criles investigation unit said that they
:04:08. > :04:11.would urge anyone with any information about this type of crime
:04:12. > :04:15.or anyone who has any concerns about someone they know all lives near to
:04:16. > :04:17.them to contact the force so that they can take action.
:04:18. > :04:21.Stuart Ratcliffe reporting there. A Northampton bar has been closed
:04:22. > :04:25.down after police said it h`d been used as a money`laundering front by
:04:26. > :04:29.a drug trafficking gang. Thd lease for the Ice Lounge on Bridgd Street
:04:30. > :04:31.has been returned to the buhlding's owners. The council's licensing
:04:32. > :04:41.committee heard the previous licensees included a drug ddaler now
:04:42. > :04:46.serving a 20`year sentence. Game over. The nightclub business shut
:04:47. > :04:48.down. After its true links to the criminal underworld were revealed.
:04:49. > :05:03.On the face of it, the Icec`p looks like any other bar, btt it was
:05:04. > :05:09.revealed that it was part of a drug trafficking and money`launddring
:05:10. > :05:13.ring. A covert police operation revealed that the atmospherd inside
:05:14. > :05:17.could be hostile and intimidating. Last month, the director, Joseph
:05:18. > :05:23.O'Neill, was jailed for 20 xears for supplying cocaine. His right`hand
:05:24. > :05:32.man was given ten years, and Michael Wilson, 7.5, for an operation
:05:33. > :05:36.involving 150 traffickers. The money`laundering happened at the
:05:37. > :05:45.bar. Instead of saying they took ?10,000, they took ?12,500, and they
:05:46. > :05:50.would put ?2500 into the business android out. So what was dirty money
:05:51. > :05:53.from the drugs money was now clean money because it went through
:05:54. > :05:57.illegitimate business. Todax, the license was given over to the bar's
:05:58. > :06:02.landlords on condition of strict texts on new tenants, and bdtter
:06:03. > :06:07.CCTV coverage, after violence at the club went unrecorded. If yot are
:06:08. > :06:11.going to have CCTV, we want to have it so that we can see the entire
:06:12. > :06:17.premises and not have dark `reas where people can't be seen. The club
:06:18. > :06:21.will stay closed until new management can be found.
:06:22. > :06:24.The first clinic in Europe which can treat a rare form of cancer opened
:06:25. > :06:28.at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge today. The new centre
:06:29. > :06:33.treats PAWS`GIST ` a cancer which starts in the stomach and mostly
:06:34. > :06:39.affects young women. Just 100 people a year are diagnosed with this
:06:40. > :06:53.cancer. That's all from the late te`m. Let's
:06:54. > :07:04.get the weather now with Aldx Dolan. Good evening. Tonight will stay dry
:07:05. > :07:08.with some long clear spells. Tomorrow looks like a fine day, the
:07:09. > :07:14.sunshine will be hazy at tiles, and lots of high`level cloud around but
:07:15. > :07:22.the southeasterly wind will bring us milder air from the continent. In a
:07:23. > :07:29.moment, the National forecast, and it stays warm for Sunday, btt by the
:07:30. > :07:30.time we get to next week, lhttle unsettled with a chance of rain
:07:31. > :07:35.showers, but still warm. forward on Saturday night. Now here
:07:36. > :07:42.is Nick Miller with the national forecast.
:07:43. > :07:46.Hello. The clocks go forward this weekend, marking the beginning of
:07:47. > :07:51.British summertime, BST. It has nothing to do with the weather. As
:07:52. > :07:56.the clocks changed last year we were coming out of the March freeze.
:07:57. > :08:03.This year, though, as the clucks change, the weather is warming up.
:08:04. > :08:08.Not clear blue sky, the sun will be hazy but the thunder storms will be
:08:09. > :08:13.gone. It will be mainly dry. And the weather is lively out there
:08:14. > :08:16.this evening. There are bands of rain with hail over western parts of
:08:17. > :08:20.the UK. A bit of rain for parts of the north
:08:21. > :08:25.of England and south-west of Scotland. And lots of hill fog into
:08:26. > :08:30.the Pennines. Mist and fog in the central and eastern areas of
:08:31. > :08:31.England. It is a slow