Kelly moves in with Marty,asking Micky to leave. Jackson celebrates qualifying as a teacher but festivities are short-lived,due to Operation New Start,a multi-agency based crackdown on the benefit culture of the estate led by hard as nails Carmen Kenaway and her adoring assistant Daniella Feeney. Soon they are evicting dozens of residents,who take refuge at the Jockey but,since over-night stays breach its licence,Kenaway demands its closure. Having unsuccessfully tried to save himself by turning super-grass Frank is made to become a double agent,discovering that ...

His teaching job withdrawn Jackson is in the same boat as the others as the estate risks becoming a ghost town but the residents fight back,playing 'musical houses' by taking over each others' homes and claiming squatters' rights. Kenaway responds with fire bombs but the Maguires play to her greed,kidnapping her and making her an offer she does not refuse,which makes her rich and saves the estate. Frank is reconciled with new police recruit Carl but Kelly suffers a miscarriage.

Despite an awkward interview Avril gets a job in a hospital pharmacy but Marty is concerned that Kelly,rather than grieve for her dead child,throws herself into partying. Given their age gap Mimi insists she and Billy should have an open marriage,having other sex partners. Shane takes Billy to a club whilst Mimi goes on the pull with her friend Gloria. Both pull but do not enjoy it. Patty attends a friend's funeral and hopes to make money when the deceased's son,Alan,who never knew his mother,attaches himself to her but he becomes obsessive and Patty has to let him ...

Carl falls for wheelchair user Clem and starts dating her but Micky,whilst out on the pull,gets hospitalized by a homophobic taxi driver,whom he eventually tracks down and confronts. Ruby,Mimi's young niece,arrives on the estate and turns some of the young males' heads whilst Aidan falls in with the psychopathic thug Frasier Kane and witnesses Kane sexually assaulting young teacher Lara Heaton.

Aidan feels guilty that he stood by and let Kane rape Lara,especially when Kane turns his attentions to Letitia. After letting Lara stay with him and Patty Aidan agrees to testify and Kane is arrested. Jamie is almost tricked into doing the dirty work of a discredited policeman,Brooksy,to whom he owes a favour,but Karen stops him in time and Brooksy is sent packing after trying to knife Jamie. Micky ends up with a baby instead of a debt he was sent to collect and decides to move on,becoming a single father. As he leaves he is about to come out but Mimi,already aware ...

Shane recruits Jackson to help him rob a cigarette delivery at a local supermarket though the plan goes wrong and they have to flee. They do however come up with a lucrative alternative,selling food discarded by the supermarket. Gloria's brother Dom,a priest suspended for his drinking and womanizing,arrives,pursued by two angry husbands whilst Carl leaves for his police training,after a less than cordial farewell with Frank,now the proud owner of Terry the terrapin. Chesney takes drastic measures to avoid being the live-in boyfriend of the buxom Lise,alias Toploader.

Avril takes matters into her own hands on discovering her colleague Callum is addicted to the pills they are dispensing and Kelly,rejecting advice from those around her,flees the estate and ends up at a drugs rave. However,after passing out she imagines a conversation with a concerned Marty and returns to him. Dom bets Karen that if he successfully beds Ruby he can have her too but Karen tells Ruby,who leads Dom on but loses him the bet. Frank nonetheless suspects that Karen is attracted to Dom.

Marty's efforts to redirect the power supply to get free electricity plunges the estate in darkness though he believes that,having had so many volts pass through him and still survived,he is chosen for something. It still fails to prevent the looters from giving him a kicking. Whilst Jamie holds a lock-in at the Jockey - where Frank loses his coat - the women gather for drinks at Mimi's. Here Gloria confesses that her parents kept Dom but put her up for adoption and,on going to the pub for more drinks,she ends up in bed with Jamie. Chesney passes out whilst ...

Following his collapse Chesney comes out of hospital to find that his cousin Toof wants to take him back to Bradford,where he can be offered a more affluent life-style. However Chesney realises that this this will place him under the thumb of his grandfather,the shop owner,and,encouraged by Patti,decides to stay on the estate and build the shop up on his own terms. Ruby and Kelly are recruited onto Lillian's panel to recruit new girls for the brothel. They do not get on though the brothel certainly ends up with a new look. Jamie continues his affair with Gloria,who,...

When Frank tells the Maguire brothers that Manchester's former war rooms have been taken over by the NAtional Lottery and are now home to thousands of scratch cards the boys,along with Frank,Ruby and Aidan,hatch a plan to tunnel underneath the main hall and steal the cards. Unnfortunately Frank's stupidity and a general falling out among thieves leads to the tunnel collapsing and trapping them. In Jamie's absence Karen sets out to prove to Mimi that she can replace him as the collector for the family's business whilst Letitia and her friends Keisha and Heaven post a ...

In the collapsed tunnel Frank finds his time capsule from 1976 when he had ideals and a poetic soul but unfortunately in the present he clumsily bursts a pipe,causing the chamber to flood. However Gloria recalls Jamie telling her of the proposed heist though Dom claims Jamie told him in order to keep the affair quiet. A rescue attempt is launched,headed by Billy and Jackson,and all five residents are saved. Jamie is pleased with Karen's work in his absence and it looks as if his fling with Gloria is over. Sadly the scratch cards have to be burned to prevent any ...