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It’s early on a Monday morning and the sliding doors to the office of Hastings Council haven’t stopped moving backwards and forwards. This is where the homeless come in desperation.

Eunice Dolby is sitting in the waiting area surrounded by suitcases containing all of her possessions.

The 77-year-old lost her husband last year and now she’s lost her home.

After 18 years as a tenant, her landlord used a Section 21 “no-fault” eviction notice to get her out.

Eunice was left homeless
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It’s the first time 77-year-old Eunice Dolby has been made homeless

“The bailiffs turned up at quarter past 10,” she says.

“I’ve always had somewhere to live. I’ve never been on the streets in my life.”

As she’s describing what happened, her head lowers and she catches her breath.

“I kept it clean and tidy, I’ve left it spotless. I never thought I’d be homeless.”

Sky's Nick Martin speaks to Eunice
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After 18 years as a tenant, Eunice’s landlord used a Section 21 eviction notice to remove her

Eunice carries her belongings
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Eunice carries her belongings out on to the streets

A few minutes later, 18-year-old Leah Gartside comes through the door with her 14-month-old baby Livia in a buggy. They’ve been living with her parents who’ve also got a Section 21 notice – the landlord wants to sell up.

“We’ve been good tenants, there’ve been no complaints. We love living there, we’ve been there for 16 years,” she says.

Leah’s come to get help before things get worse and the bailiffs are on the doorstep.

Leah and her daughter Livia
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Leah, 18, and her 14-month-old daughter Livia

Leah's daughter Livia
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Leah, Livia and her parents were living happily together until they got a Section 21 notice

I’m told that this is a typical Monday morning for the on-duty housing officers. I’m here to spend some time with them, to understand why Britain is gripped by a housing crisis that is causing misery for thousands of people.

And local councils are bearing the brunt because they have a legal duty to put a roof over the heads of homeless people eligible for help.

Housing officer and Leah
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Housing officer Phil with Leah

“I would say the one biggest stress in life is losing your home and not knowing where you’re going to sleep from one night to the next,” says the duty officer, Phil Veness.

He has pages and pages of appointments booked on his screen, plus they handle emergencies like Eunice.

Leah is working but she cannot afford to rent from a private landlord in Hastings.

England map

Winner and losers

The seaside town has boomed in the last few years with an increasing number of boutiques, restaurants and bars. Hybrid working after COVID means more people can live by the coast and commute into London.

House prices have seen the biggest relative rise than anywhere else in England over the last decade. Tourism is worth £288m a year.

And there are now around 1,000 Airbnb properties to rent. Passing estate agent windows, you can see the high price for small flats up for rent, often over £1,000 a month.

But popularity has a price. There are not enough homes to go around.

For sale signs in Hastings.

As in many coastal towns, the rental market is broken. Homes that are available cost a lot of money. New analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) shows that housing benefit was paying a quarter of all private rents in Hastings.

The housing benefit bill here is £28m a year and 22% of those properties are substandard.

In England, landlords who rent out homes which are below the decent homes standard receive £1.6bn in house benefits per year, (equivalent to £1 in every £5 spent on housing benefit in the private rented sector).

In other words, according to the JRF, benefits are subsidising poor quality homes.

Hastings map

Darren Baxter, principal policy adviser at JRF, says: “Taxpayers and local councils shouldn’t be footing the bill for poor-quality properties owned by private landlords.

“We need to get this dysfunctional system working again. Strategically bringing private homes back into social ownership is a rapid way to fix this crisis.”

But it’s still not enough. Housing benefit is calculated to reflect the local private rental market – the amount given from central government has been frozen since 2020 and will only go up from next month. It has not kept pace with rents.

This means that in Hastings, like many other parts of the country, there is a gap between the amount of benefit paid and rents charged.

I was told that some landlords have been known to evict their tenants, make their property available for temporary accommodation at a higher rate only then to house tenants who have been made homeless in the first place.

Section 21 evictions

‘I worry about the kids’

Chelsea Braiden is surrounded by bags and boxes again. Last year she and her two sons Harley, aged seven, and Jesse, six, were evicted from the flat they were renting because the landlord wanted the property back. And now they are packing up again.

“I’m stressed because I worry about the kids. That we’re not going to have the right suitable home before things get hard,” Chelsea says.

The stakes are high for Chelsea and she really needs a suitable home to live in because both of her boys are very ill.

Chelsea has two sons
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Chelsea needs spacious accommodation for her two sons, who suffer from Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Harley and Jesse have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a severe muscle-wasting disease that gets worse over time. They will both need wheelchairs and help breathing. There is no cure. It’s likely they won’t live beyond the age of 30.

“I think it’s going to be difficult to find that suitable property that is big enough for both of these kids to live in. It’s not going to be just for now. It’s got to be until they pass away.”

They are living in a tiny bungalow on the edge of town. The doors aren’t wide enough for wheelchairs.

“You just worry that you’re not going to give them the best life that they should have. You see other children that age and they have decent homes, where they can be kids. My kids can’t just be kids, that’s what’s so difficult.

“And while they’re still walking, I want to give them what they need as kids.”

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The horror of living in a damp ridden home
The housing battle – which party will get Britain building?

National picture is bleak

There are 500 households living in temporary accommodation in Hastings and it’s costing the council a fortune. In 2019, the council spent £730,000 on temporary accommodation.

Within the next year, the council estimates that bill will rise to £5.6m. This is a third of the total budget for the whole town – pushing the council to the brink of bankruptcy.

Nationally, the picture is also bleak. Analysis by the Local Government Association shows that the number of households living in temporary accommodation is the highest since records began in 1998, costing councils at least £1.74bn in 2022/23.

But there are glimmers of hope. After packing up, Chelsea’s taking her sons to see their new house for the first time. It’s a bright modern property with a downstairs bathroom and easier access for the boys.

Their housing officer, Vanessa Stock, has relocated four households to make the move possible. But it is still temporary.

Vanessa Stock, housing officer
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Housing officer Vanessa Stock with Chelsea

Chelsea says she has looked for private rentals but cannot afford it. She works part-time around school hours, but it’s not enough.

Like thousands of others, she is priced out of the market.

Temporary accommodation numbers

Waiting game

There are more than a million people in England waiting for something more permanent – affordable social housing. The rent for social housing is linked to local wages so cheaper than a private landlord. Tenancies are also more secure.

Housing manager Alan Sheppard shows what he calls the “housing register”. It is effectively the waiting list for a house.

On this day there are just six available properties for 1,500 households.

“So as you can see, the supply is nowhere meeting the demand,” Alan says.

Alan Sheppard
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Housing officer Alan Sheppard says ‘supply is nowhere meeting the demand’

‘I don’t get anywhere’

On the other side of town is a former nursing home that has been converted into bedsits.

In the communal hallway some pushchairs are parked up. Most of the bedsits are for homeless mums and their children. Like 20-year-old Jessica, who lives in a small room with her two-year-old son Leo. This is the only home he has ever known.

Jessica is used to this. She has been stuck in temporary housing for five years since she was 15. She knows the housing register system well. She is one of the 1,500 households clicking and hoping, week after week.

Leah and her daughter Livia
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There is a six-year wait for a three-bedroom flat

“When I became homeless, we went to about five estate agents in town. Everywhere we walked into turned us down.

“I wake up and wait. I wonder if I am going to get a house today. I bid and get nowhere. I get excited thinking maybe I am going to get lucky. But I don’t get anywhere.”

And she’s worried about her son, Leo.

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Two-year-old grows up living in one room

“He’s so used to being in a trapped room that the outside world for him is hard to deal with,” says Jessica.

“Even just going for a walk or going out to a playgroup is strange for him.”

And as each day passes, the council must pay for the accommodation.

Buying back

One solution is to roll back the clock.

In the 1980s, millions of council houses were sold to tenants under the Right to Buy scheme. Now many councils are buying back the homes they once owned to cope with the crisis.

This has been possible with the help of government money. The £1.2bn Local Authority Housing Fund has been split between 203 councils – partly to house Ukranian and Afghan refugees, but also help others in poor quality, expensive temporary accommodation.

Hastings Council has used this, alongside the Move on Fund to fund the purchase of 50 houses along with their own budget.

“Needs must,” says Chris Hancock, director of housing at Hastings Borough Council.

Chris Hancock
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Chris Hancock, director of housing at Hastings Council, says 50 houses have been bought back with the help of government funding

He shows one of the three-bed, ex-council houses with a garden that was bought back from the open market last year.

“We can either keep going, spending £500 a week on temporary accommodation, which just isn’t good enough, or bite the bullet and start building up our portfolio again…

“We can’t afford for people to be in emergency accommodation. We don’t want people living in one room in bed and breakfasts. We want people to be in a home.”

Share of budget on temporary accommodation

The government says it’s committed to delivering 300,000 homes a year, including spending £11.5bn on affordable homes.

In 2021/22, just 7,528 new social homes were delivered. Nowhere near enough for the 1.1 million people on the waiting list.

Empty houses

A block of flats in a pretty, leafy part of Hastings lies empty. It is owned by Orbit, a local housing association.

Clifton Court
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Clifton Court (two central blocks) lie empty in Hastings

Local campaigner Grace Lally is using colourful chalk spray to emblazon walls with slogans questioning why this block is empty.

She says Orbit is deliberately neglecting social housing stock so that it can be sold privately for profit.

Graffiti daubed on a wall in Hastings

“Last summer the people living here were moved out – the housing association said the flats didn’t meet modern thermal efficiency standards. Most of the houses in Hastings are probably not up to modern thermal efficiency standards,” she said.

“It’s just another drain of social housing out of the system. [There are] 53 flats that could be going to people who are on the waiting list. This is a scam. This is not okay.”

Grace Lally
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Local campaigner Grace Lally says local housing associations are deliberately neglecting social housing stock in favour of selling privately for profit

A spokesperson for Orbit said: “Orbit is a not-for-profit housing association. We will therefore aim to provide as much affordable housing on the site as planning and environmental decisions allow.

“We took the decision to decommission Clifton Court with plans to redevelop the scheme into new affordable homes given the existing building could no longer meet customers’ needs… We cannot confirm what proportion of the new development will be earmarked for social housing as this will form part of the planning process.”

The mainstream political parties agree on the need for more homes to be built.

The government says it’s “on track” to meet its manifesto commitment of building one million more homes before the end of this parliament and defended the use of temporary accommodation.

A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “Temporary accommodation is a vital safety net to make sure families are not left without a roof over their heads. Figures show that the majority of families who have been in temporary accommodation for long periods of time are living in council-owned properties or private rented sector homes rented by the local authority. This provides a suitable home whilst families wait for settled accommodation, and councils have a responsibility to help families find this as quickly as possible.

“That’s why we are giving them £1.2bn over three years through the Homelessness Prevention Grant, and our £11.5bn Affordable Homes Programme will go further to deliver thousands more affordable homes to rent and buy across the country.”

Leah and her daughter Livia
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There is a six-year wait for a three-bedroom flat

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader and shadow housing secretary is making big promises ahead of the election.

“After 14 years of failure, the Conservatives have utterly failed to deliver the safe, secure and affordable homes Britain needs,” she said.

“Labour will put an end to the Tories’ housing emergency by ending the scourge of no-fault evictions, getting Britain building again with 1.5 million new homes, and delivering the biggest boost to affordable, social and council housing for a generation.”

No quick fix

Back at the front desk, Phil has nearly completed his meeting with Leah, the single mum we met at the council offices in the morning.

She is just the latest in a long line of people who need a home.

Phil says: “For a one-person property the average waiting time in Hastings is four years.

“For a two-bedroom place, it’s five years. And for a three-bedroom, it’s six years.”

Leah shakes her head. Her journey into the unknown is just beginning.

This is the first special report in Faultlines, a Sky News series that aims to explore some of the biggest issues facing Britain in an election year.

You can watch Nick Martin’s full report today at 6.30am, 10.30am, 12.30pm, 2.30pm and 6.30pm on Sky News.

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Zhenhao Zou: More than 20 new potential victims come forward after ‘prolific’ rapist jailed for assaulting 10 women

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Zhenhao Zou: More than 20 new potential victims come forward after 'prolific' rapist jailed for assaulting 10 women

Another 23 female potential victims have reported that they may have been raped by Zhenhao Zou – the Chinese PhD student detectives believe may be one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders.

The Metropolitan Police launched an international appeal after Zou, 28, was convicted of drugging and raping 10 women following a trial at the Inner London Crown Court last month.

Detectives have not confirmed whether the 23 people who have come forward add to their estimates that more than 50 other women worldwide may have been targeted by the University College London student.

Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth said: “We have victims reaching out to us from different parts of the globe.

“At the moment, the primary places where we believe offending may have occurred at this time appears to be both in England, here in London, and over in China.”

Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth
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Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth

Zou lived in a student flat in Woburn Place, near Russell Square in central London, and later in a flat in the Uncle building in Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle, south London.

Read more: How a student described as ‘smart and charming’ was unmasked as a prolific sexual predator

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He had also been a student at Queen’s University Belfast, where he studied mechanical engineering from 2017 until 2019. Police say they have not had any reports from Belfast but added they were “open-minded about that”.

“Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been with his awful offending, there is every prospect that he could have offended anywhere in the world,” Mr Southworth said.

“We wouldn’t want anyone to write off the fact they may have been a victim of his behaviour simply by virtue of the fact that you are from a certain place.

“The bottom line is, if you think you may have been affected by Zhenhao Zou or someone you know may have been, please don’t hold back. Please make contact with us.”

***ONLY USE IF HE IS CONVICTED OF AT LEAST TWO RAPES***It is feared Zou may have carried out dozens more sex crimes. Pic: Met Police
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Pic: Met Police

Zou used hidden or handheld cameras to record his attacks, and kept the footage and often the women’s belongings as souvenirs.

He targeted young, Chinese women, inviting them to his flat for drinks or to study, before drugging and assaulting them.

Zou was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim, as well as three counts of voyeurism, 10 counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one count of false imprisonment and three counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.

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Moment police arrest rapist student

Mr Southworth said: “Of those 10 victims, several were not identified so as we could be sure exactly where in the world they were, but their cases, nevertheless, were sufficient to see convictions at court.

“There were also, at the time, 50 videos that were identified of further potential female victims of Zhenhao Zou’s awful crimes.

“We are still working to identify all of those women in those videos.

“We have now, thankfully, had 23 victim survivors come forward through the appeal that we’ve conducted, some of whom may be identical with some of the females that we saw in those videos, some of whom may even turn out to be from the original indicted cases.”

Mr Southworth added: “Ultimately, now it’s the investigation team’s job to professionally pick our way through those individual pieces of evidence, those individual victims’ stories, to see if we can identify who may have been a victim, when and where, so then we can bring Zou to justice for the full extent of his crimes.”

Mr Southworth said more resources will be put into the investigation, and that detectives are looking to understand “what may have happened without wishing to revisit the trauma, but in a way that enables [the potential victims] to give evidence in the best possible way.”

The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@met.police.uk, or via the major incident public portal on the force’s website.

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Girl, 11, who went missing after entering River Thames named

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Girl, 11, who went missing after entering River Thames named

An 11-year-old girl who went missing after entering the River Thames has been named as Kaliyah Coa.

An “extensive search” has been carried out after the incident in east London at around 1.30pm on Monday.

Police said the child had been playing during a school inset day and entered the water near Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich.

A recovery mission is now said to be under way to find Kaliyah along the Thames, with the Metropolitan Police carrying out an extensive examination of the area.

Location of Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich, where 11-year-old girl Kaliyah Coa went into the River Thames on 31/03
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Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope in North Woolwich leading into the Thames

Chief Superintendent Dan Card thanked members of the public and emergency teams who responded to “carry out a large-scale search during a highly pressurised and distressing time”.

He also confirmed drone technology and boats were being used to “conduct a thorough search over a wide area”.

He added: “Our specialist officers are supporting Kaliyah’s family through this deeply upsetting time and our thoughts go out to all those impacted by what has happened.”

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“Equally we appreciate this has affected the wider community who have been extremely supportive. You will see extra officers in the area during the coming days.”

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On Monday, Kerry Benadjaoud, a 62-year-old resident from the area, said she heard of the incident from her next-door neighbour, who “was outside doing her garden and there was two little kids running, and they said ‘my friend’s in the water'”.

When she arrived at the scene with a life ring, a man told her he had called the police, “but he said at the time he could see her hands going down”.

Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope that goes directly into the River Thames and is used to transport boats.

Residents pointed out that it appeared to be covered in moss and was slippery.

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Planning reforms to ‘rewire the system’ and get Britain building – all while protecting wildlife

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Planning reforms to 'rewire the system' and get Britain building - all while protecting wildlife

Major developers will only deal with one regulator under planning reforms which ministers say will “rewire the system” to get Britain building – all while protecting the environment. 

A review by former Labour adviser Dan Corry into Britain’s sluggish system of green regulation has concluded that existing environmental regulators should remain in place, while rejecting a “bonfire of regulations”.

But Mr Corry suggested there might be circumstances in which the government look at changing the wildlife and habit rules inherited from the EU, which protect individual species.

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These lie at the centre of the controversy of a £120m bat tunnel – the shed in Aylesbury which protects a rare breed from future high speed trains.

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The government has now explicitly ruled out any such change in this parliament.

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Campaigners have questioned whether the changes go far enough and will make a major difference to the rate and scale of building in the UK.

Speaking to Sky News, Environment Secretary Steve Reed insisted that accepting nine of the recommendations from the Corry review would amount to wholesale reform.

The minister said: “We can get a win-win for economic growth and for nature. And that is why we are moving ahead with proposals such as appointing a lead regulator for major developments so that the developers don’t have to navigate the architecture of multiple regulators.

“They just work for a single regulator who manages all the others on their behalf. Simplifying the online planning portal.

“These are huge changes that will save developers billions of pounds and speed up decisions doing damage to the environment.”

Mr Reed insisted that there would be “no more bat tunnels” built, even though the Corry review suggests that more work needs to be done to look again at the relevant guidance.

It says: “Rapidly reviewing the existing catalogue of compliance guidance, including on protecting bats, will identify opportunities to remove duplication, ambiguity or inconsistency.

“Natural England has already agreed to review and update their advice to Local Planning Authorities on bats to ensure there is clear, proportionate and accessible advice available.”

The review will mean:

• Appointing one lead regulator for every major infrastructure project, like Heathrow expansion

• A review on how nature rules are implemented – but not the rules themselves

• Insisting regulators focus more on government priorities, particularly growth

Economist and former charity leader Mr Corry, who led the review, said it shows that “simply scrapping regulations isn’t the answer”.

“Instead we need modern, streamlined regulation that is easier for everyone to use. While short-term trade-offs may be needed, these reforms will ultimately deliver a win-win for both nature and economic growth in the longer run.”

However, Sam Richards from Britain Remade, a thinktank trying to get Britain growing, said that while the steps are welcome, the number of regulators that report to the environment department would remain the same before and after the review. He questioned whether this would have the impact ministers claimed.

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