Broken ladder: special report

With more and more people in the UK renting property, Channel 4 News asks if rental laws should be changed to protect tenants from being evicted.

Benefits Street, a Channel 4 show looking at the lives of benefits claimants in Birmingham, triggers police investigations, a flood of complaints and a row over whether the participants were tricked.

A Kent landlord has hit the headlines for his plan to evict tenants on housing benefits. As rents keep rising and demand for property grows, Channel 4 News looks at what rights, if any, tenants have.

Landlord Fergus Wilson owns around 1,000 properties in Kent. He has served eviction notices on 200 families who depend on welfare to cover their rent. He explains why.

With private rents reaching a new high, a charity warns that families are being left trapped in the unstable and expensive rental market.

It is meant to be a last resort. But the number of homeless families in emergency B&B accommodation is at its highest level in 10 years, with some councils flouting the law to extend time limits.

Britain’s state-backed banks are braced for a flood of interest in the help to buy scheme. But MPs warn the Bank of England should have more powers to intervene.

Author and professor of contemporary thought at Brunel University, Will Self has a message for people treating their property as cash-cows, and talks about the demonisation of social housing.

The government is intent on helping people onto the housing ladder. But for some, property ownership doesn’t come into it. Their dream is to be able to afford to rent a flat, not just a single room.

After being heckled by veterans at his party conference speech, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond defends his cuts to the military. And the PM’s help to buy scheme.

Chancellor George Osborne gives new powers to the Bank of England to monitor the government’s help to buy scheme following criticism that it risks creating a housing boom and bust.

The private sector is now driving over three-quarters of growth in purpose-built student digs. At the start of a new academic year, Channel 4 News asks what happened to old-fashioned halls.

As part of a series on the housing crisis, Channel 4 News looks at the two issues facing politicians seeking to tackle a broken market: availability and affordability.

In London about one third of property buyers are now from overseas. With demand for houses rising all the time, this is having a knock-on effect on prices across the UK, say campaigners.

Britain’s housing system offers only a broken ladder for first-time buyers. But is Labour’s promise to build 200,000 new homes a year by 2020 achievable?