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Tenants in dangerous homes after failed regeneration

Patrick Hughes
BBC News•padraigoaodha
Reporting fromSouthampton
BBC Cherise looking down the lens in her living room, the background is out of focus. She has her hair tied back and is wearing a grey top.BBC
Cherise, 21, found herself living in a flat that was falling apart after leaving the care system

Cherise tells me she has finally left Northam Road and she could not be happier to have a new place to live.

The 21-year-old had been sleeping on the living room floor of her Southampton home next to a large hole where the wood had rotted away. She says: "I used to wake up and just cry."

But her former neighbours are still at the mercy of the company landlord which owns almost 100 properties on a single road.

Many of the people I spoke to are vulnerable; some were homeless in the recent past.

Some say they are living without heating, gas or electricity.

Following a months-long investigation by BBC South, we can reveal how one landlord took control of Northam Road, let unsafe flats to vulnerable people, and seemingly misled Southampton City Council in 2012 into paying a grant for regeneration work in the area.

Ray is looking at the camera, he is an older man and is wearing a black woolen hat and a black coat. He has a short white beard. He is sitting inside in a room with white walls and a picture on the wall.
Ray Huggins is a former tenant of the company and says there should have been more council checks on properties

One former tenant, Ray Huggins, questioned why the council did not check whether these properties were safe and suitable for habitation before people moved in.

"Most people are on social security around here - [the council] are paying the rent money," he said.

"Shouldn't they really come out and see if the places are fit enough to live in":[]}