ITV News exposes the UK’s dirty secret in new documentary podcast
A new ITV podcast, The Trapped uncovers the UK’s dirty secret of tenants living in the worst conditions imaginable, with no way out.
ITV News Investigations Editor, Daniel Hewitt exposes the scandal he discovered four years ago, telling the story of what happened next, and how people without a voice are treated in Britain.
In 2021 Hewitt, who was a political correspondent at the time, wanted to get out of Westminster and go around the country, to see what impact the pandemic was having on different people.
He’d seen Facebook groups popping up of frustrated social housing tenants posting pictures of mould, damp and disrepair they said their landlords were not fixing, blaming the pandemic.
After receiving a short video of mother of two, Fransoy’s flat that looked bad, he decided to go to see her with his cameraman Ted. The video had given a small glimpse of the poor conditions she and her boys were living in, but it was the tip of the iceberg. It was instantly clear as he watched water cascade down black walls covered in furry mould, that this was dangerous housing.
“This was not a story about bad housing conditions in a flat in south London – it felt so much bigger than that,” says Hewitt. “I felt more angry than I have ever felt in my life. How had these families been left to live like this for months? Why were their complaints being ignored? Who was to blame? When did people stop caring?
The Trapped is the story of the journey he and his small team of journalists have been on to answer those questions as they travelled the country visiting homes not fit for humans.
When they thought they’d seen everything, witnessed the worst housing imaginable, they would somehow stumble upon places that would shock them even more.
Hewitt continues: “The Trapped is the culmination of many years of investigative reporting that would simply not have been possible without the bravery and courage of the people left to rot in Britain’s broken housing system who have been willing to speak out and trust us with their stories.
“Our work has helped drive a change in the law, but if this investigation and this podcast has achieved anything it has been to give a voice to people without one, the powerless, living in the forgotten and neglected corners of a country with the means to stop this madness.”
Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at thetrapped.co.uk