Homes tycoon accuses BBC of bias

Controversial landlord Fergus Wilson has accused the BBC of bias after it aired a special edition of Panorama focused on his career.

Reporter Richard Bilton met with the outspoken property mogul and discussed his plans to mass-evict families so he can sell his residential properties.

Yet Mr Wilson, 70, who owned about 1,000 homes across Ashford and Maidstone at the peak of his empire, has criticised the way he was portrayed in the programme.

The episode prompted a backlash against the landlord from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn among many others, who called for an end to “revenge evictions”.

The show - which aired on Monday - took aim at many of his past decisions, such as his announcement he would ban on “coloured” tenants - because they allegedly left curry smells in his homes.

He recently evicted four mothers in Ashford and in September, he triggered a police response when he threw his plate of fish and chips on the floor at a service station.

Yet Mr Wilson claimed the programme ignored his views on problems with the buy-to-let housing market and urged the BBC to throw Mr Bilton “on the scrapheap”.

He said: “The BBC is known as the Biased Broadcasting Corporation for very good reason.

“Every time Richard Bilton is on a housing programme it is the same old gramophone record of the poor parents with children with nowhere to go.

“It is a subject close to his heart. However, he does the TV audience no good at all by talking up precious time showing tenants forced out and avoiding dealing with the causation of the problem.

“No time was spent dealing with the prime issue of why are landlords leaving buy-to-let in their hoards due to the punitive tax regimes.”