Beds in Sheds

Sir Stephen Bubb, head of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, which represents the charity establishment, warns that Britain is becoming a country where the "haves" live increasingly separate lives to the "have nots". He says charities have spoken to him about their "concern that public attitudes are hardening, with greater suspicion of those who rely on publicly funded support, be they disabled, mentally ill or unlucky enough to be raised as a child in a 'feckless' family". In last year's National Centre for Social Research's British Social Attitudes survey, more than a quarter of those questioned felt poverty was the result of "laziness" or "lack of willpower". In the mid-1990s, that figure was only 15%.

"The result is that we are in danger of creating, in the midst of one of the richest countries in the world, a 'forgotten Britain' – swaths of our society whose plight is getting worse ... The homeless, victims of domestic violence, those with mental health problems, the elderly and alone, children in broken homes – the support for these people looks likely to be eroded over the next decade, without the nation they are part of appearing to notice or care."

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"Maria" pays £350 in rent a month to live in a shed. Given that her wages are not huge, it's at the limit of what Maria can afford.

Converted sheds have become an increasingly mainstream  part of the London property market. It's a logical development, given the explosion of property prices throughout the capital, and the huge shortage of supply. As central London becomes more expensive, people are pushed further out and rental prices even in Newham, which is the second most deprived borough in England and Wales, are rising fast. Landlords are subdividing family homes into smaller and smaller units, haphazardly extending plumbing and electricity connections from the main properties into the garden sheds and garages, which they have no problem in renting out.

Newham's mayor, Sir Robin Wales, is dismayed. "It's big money. You get a few breeze blocks, sling up some crappy old shed in your back garden, and now you're making hundreds and hundreds of pounds a week. It doesn't take long for you to make a lot of money out of it, provided you are prepared to trade in human misery. We found a walk-in freezer where people have been living, paying rent to live there," Wales says. "The record was one house with 38 people, of whom 16 were children." About a quarter of the borough's landlords take cash rents. "They just take the money and they don't give a toss about the conditions the people are living in. It is poor people who are being exploited by rogue landlords trying to trade on people's misery."

More people are renting because they can't afford deposits for a mortgage; there is an acute shortage of social housing; new housing benefit caps mean families are being pushed from expensive boroughs to cheaper areas; changes in eligibility criteria mean tenants under 35 are obliged to share properties. The value of benefits are falling, so people have less money to spend. Some of the tenants are illegal immigrants, unable to complain without facing deportation.

Even, the housing minister, Grant Shapps 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".

But Christine Lyons a planning enforcement official says "With the reduction in housing benefit we will see more of this – landlords dividing up properties so that they can get the maximum rent possible...in the last four years it has almost got out of control."

If a building has existed for four years without attracting complaints, it becomes legal.

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