Left to Rot : How Governments Have Betrayed Us and How We Fix It

An investigation into the policy choices that led to the UK housing crisis.

What is the true cost of Britain’s housing emergency?

This is the shocking story of Britain’s appalling housing crisis as it has never been told before – through the people stuck in its grip, living in barely believable and totally unliveable conditions, including children brought up in hostels, bedsits and even shipping containers.

Delving into the investigative work that began in a council tower block in Croydon and ended in the Houses of Parliament with changes to the law, Left to Rot exposes who is heard and who is ignored, where money is spent, where it is cut and what it tells us about Britain today.

This book exposes the long-term damage of short-term political thinking at the heart of British government, and lays bare the human cost of the catastrophic and ultimately counterproductive policy of rolling back the state in crucial areas of public life that matter most to people.

Daniel Hewitt is Investigations Editor for ITV News and has spent the last five years reporting from the frontline of Britain’s housing crisis.

His investigations on social housing have led to a change in the law, and he has twice given evidence to MPs in Parliament on his reporting. His work has directly led to six independent inquiries and investigations by the UK Parliament, the Welsh Government, the Regulator for Social Housing, the Housing Ombudsman for England, National Housing Federation and the Chartered Institute for Housing.

He was named Royal Television Society Specialist Journalist of the Year in 2022 and 2024 for his work on housing and homelessness. His work on hidden homelessness was also awarded the Royal Television Society award for best home news coverage in 2024, an award he earned again in 2025. He has been nominated for the Orwell Prize four times for his reporting, and produced and presented the Radio Academy award-winning podcast The Trapped.

Daniel has presented four ITV documentaries on the subject, including the award-winning 'Surviving Squalor: Britain’s Housing Shame' and 'Life and Debt: Stories from the Edge'.

Previously he worked as a political correspondent, and has interviewed five Prime Ministers including Boris Johnson, Theresa May, and Sir Keir Starmer.