Bureau Recommends: The Return of the slum landlord
The Bureau recommends an investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches into Britain’s 21st century slum landlords.
The documentary, presented by Jon Snow, exposed how landlords intent on exploiting the vulnerable are able to leverage their victims’ poverty against them, threatening them with eviction if they refuse to pay inflated rents or relocate to alternative properties.
One of the housing providers filmed by an undercover reporter was revealed to be receiving thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money, as well as enjoying recognition as a registered charity.
A second undercover reporter investigated the phenomenon of landlords housing people in sheds at the bottom of their gardens, transforming whole areas into modern-day slums.
Campbell Robb, the chief executive of housing and homelessness charity Shelter, said: “Our research and the Dispatches programme Landlords from Hell seriously throw into question the housing minister’s claim that ‘the vast majority of England’s three million private tenants are happy with the service they receive.’ Clearly, the evidence we have gathered, and that shown in the programme, demonstrates this is simply not the case.”
