In Matt’s eyes a story has two sides

NEVER judge a book by its cover is the lesson learned by Matt Allwright in The Housing Enforcers.

The BBC1 daytime show looks at the work of the men and women on the front line in the battle between the nation’s landlords and tenants.

And Matt, 46, says that even with all the distressing eviction scenarios he’s come across, he’s discovered things aren’t always what they seem.

“If you’re not careful then your prejudice can take over,” said Matt, a familiar consumer champion face from Rogue Traders and Watchdog.

“We went to an eviction and when I walked in I could see the flat had been pretty comprehensively trashed.

“There were machete marks on the walls, weapons lying around and you immediately think this guy deserves to get thrown out.

“They were about to change the locks when he comes back with a couple of his mates. You can imagine our apprehension about what was going to happen.

“But it turns out he was a very eloquent young man who wanted to tell us about his life and explain how he’d got where he had. He was working for a major retailer on a zero-hours contract and he’d started to regard the flat as a prison.

“He wasn’t in the slightest bit threatening.”

Seeing the predicaments of some of those he came across can’t help but make Matt more appreciative when he returns home to wife Charlotte and their two kids.

But he has to keep a sense of perspective.

“When I get home I try not to look at the kids and think ‘you should be thankful for what you’ve got’.

“That doesn’t help anyone. But seeing the sharp side of life is such an eye opener and it does seem to be getting worse.”

The Housing Enforcers, BBC1, weekdays 9.15am.