reporting ALEX MACNAUGHTON / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO 4m


More than four million UK households live in homes


let by housing associations or councils


and, more recently, Channel 4’s 60 Days on the Estates. A council estate was seen as something to escape from, with those who remained often labelled scroungers by right-wing tabloids. There is also a significant change here, says Jules Birch, a freelance journalist and blogger, with terms such as scrounger less likely to appear in headlines. “It’s hard for the right-wing media to get away with that post-Grenfell,” he says. Hannah Fearn, another freelancer who previously edited The Guardian’s network for housing professionals, says the interest generated by Grenfell and the Awaab Ishak case led to more enthusiasm for housing stories among commissioning editors. “You can pitch ideas in a way that you never could before,” she says. Stories calling for more housebuilding (rather than just preserving green fields) are more commonplace, with less fixation on property prices. “The media has cottoned on to the fact that rises in house prices aren’t good news for the general population,” adds Birch. The new interest in


housing has spawned a flurry of books written by journalists. Pete Apps, deputy editor of Inside Housing, wrote a detailed account of the Grenfell tragedy, while Vicky Spratt, housing correspondent at the i newspaper, wrote a book on problems faced by tenants in social and private rented housing. Freelance Kieran Yates,


DINENDRA HARIA / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


who writes about culture and social affairs, wrote All the Houses I’ve Ever Lived In, describing her life as she moved from home to home as a child and young adult. Yates, who reported on Grenfell for the BBC and Vice, is interested in the


impact of housing on wider society. The musicians she interviews are most likely to hail from council estates. “It is important to revisit the


narrative in the media, which has been about demonising social housing and working-class people,” she adds. “People like me, who lived in social housing, are not represented in the newsroom.” With about 20 per cent of UK households now renting privately, newsroom conversations are as likely to be about problem landlords as the difficulty of buying a home. Private tenants are an important audience for titles aimed at younger people. Among those renting, Fearn


points out, are children of senior editors. “It’s affecting the lives of senior journalists on nationals,” she says. “Once you get into private rent, you start writing about renting across the board.” Jon Land, former editor of the


magazine 24Housing and now head of content at the Housing Quality Network consultancy, says coverage of poor-quality


homes has ‘blown a hole’ in the reputation of social landlords. This means many are nervous about talking to journalists, even when they have good news. “Journalists are taking a far more


sympathetic approach to tenants and the poor deal they are getting,” says Land. “Landlords are seen as the problem.” Maybe that is the way it should be, with the media holding landlords to account. Housing secretary Michael Gove is never far from TV bulletins, parrying journalists’ questions about cuts in government funding and making threats against errant landlords. When Gove took part in a TV


interview on the Rochdale estate where Awaab Ishak died, the tenant he spoke to declined to appear on camera, preferring to stay anonymous. But that is unusual. In most cases, says Hewitt,


tenants want publicity. He continues to receive emails from tenants in poor housing. “People don’t contact ITV about conditions in their home lightly,” he says. “They do so out of desperation.”


‘Get the tone right’


FILMING people who live in a squalid council flat requires more than just interviewing skills. Reporters have a


duty of care to tenants who flag up problems, even if they ask to be featured on TV, says Daniel Hewitt. When Hewitt began


filming the awful conditions in some social housing, he reminded tenants that they, along with their homes, would be seen by millions of viewers. To ensure they were


happy with appearing on TV, he visited families with producers the day before filming,


and discussed their options and any fears. “There is a thin line


between exposing an injustice and gawping in a Benefits Street type of way,” he says. Thanks to Hewitt and


ITV, some tenants were rehoused, though that often took time and meant keeping in touch with the residents after they had featured on the news.


“The important thing


is not to regard anyone as a case study,” he says. “You have to get the tone right. Part of that is getting to know the person.” Last year, he was a


witness before a House of Commons committee that was investigating housing problems. Prior to the session, he admits, he felt more nervous than at any time in his life. Appearing with him


were tenants who had contacted ITV about their living conditions, and were also about to be questioned by MPs. “I felt part of my role was to be there and make sure they were OK,” he says.


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