The Rent is Too Damn High
On 30 April, the housing minister, Grant Shapps, announced that the government was creating a nationwide “beds in sheds” taskforce, to identify the thousands of sheds and outbuildings being illegally rented out, often to illegal migrants. He said it was “a scandal that these back-garden slums exist to exploit people, many of whom … find themselves trapped into paying extortionate rents to live in these cramped conditions”.
The story closes with this:
There are only two toilets, which she says, “is not at all enough”. She is looking forward to returning to Hyderabad, where the living conditions will be much better.