28/12/2016 London News

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New figures released by City Hall show that hundreds of people

sleeping rough on the streets are former servicemen.

The Mayor has pledged to help them, saying he'll spend an additional

It's just a week since this former serviceman walked into this hostel.

After a year of sleeping rough in London.

He asked us to hide his identity to protect his family.

He says there are many more like him.

Without the structure of the military, life

I could take you to Westminster now and show you ten or 12 that I know

He thought because he was a former serviceman,

he would get more help in London but what he found instead

was that he was sent to the back of the queue.

I went into Westminster county council

offices and basically I was told, you can get

but if you're a single man with no addictions, you're looking

at a 20 year wait on the

In the last eight years, the number of people sleeping

rough in London has doubled and the proportion

This hostel alone has 155 people currently staying here.

The mayor has said ?4.2 million is to be spent directly

2 million will go to help 350 regular rough sleepers, 1.9

million will help recent rough sleepers, and ?340,000 will go

towards a so-called pan-London clearing house.

We are bringing together all the different players,

whether that is councils, voluntary sector, homeless charities and

central government and other agencies, to work out how best to

help the different kinds of people who end up rough sleeping.

Neil is a former soldier who has also slept rough.

Now he works bringing ex-military off the streets.

It is not going anywhere near far enough to

help eradicate the problem that there is in London.

First, to give people security of homes, there

Just yesterday, a man sleeping rough behind

Trafalgar Square was the

The mayor said in one of the wealthiest cities on

earth, homelessness is a source of shame.

Two 17-year-old boys have died after a crash in Leigh

on Sea after being pursued by a police patrol car.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is now

Two other teenagers in the car who were injured have been arrested.

Talks aimed at averting a 24-hour strike on London Underground broke

Members of the RMT and TSSA unions are set to walk out on January 8th,

next Sunday, in a long-running dispute over job losses

Further talks are now planned for next Wednesday after tube

managers said they needed more time before putting a new deal forward.

Families left homeless after a fire ripped through their west London

The blaze, in August, was caused by a faulty

It was back in August when the DeFreitas family's

A London Fire Brigade investigation concluded it was sparked

The company behind the tumble dryer, Whirlpool, say they are still

Meanwhile, the family are still living in temporary accommodation,

It's been months and it's been very frustrating, you know.

Your world has been turned upside down, in a sense,

Of the 27 households who had to move out, 17 are now back in.

Chantelle was home in time for Christmas, but still

We had to sort of pay to purchase clothes and stuff.

We weren't allowed home for six weeks to get anything.

But nobody wants to take responsibility for that.

Whirlpool says its thoughts are with all those affected.

It has identified tumble-dryer models which need repairs

and may pose a fire risk, but it has told its customers

they can continue to use them, as long as they are not left

But the solicitors representing the tenants affected by

The concept that people have to stay with their tumble dryers in order

for them to be safe whilst in use is pretty ludicrous.

I don't think anyone would consider that that's acceptable.

You know, the obligation is on manufacturers to get

Consumers are buying products and they expect them to be safe.

That is an obligation that manufacturers have in law.

This is one of the machines that has been on the affected list.

The London Fire Brigade has also warned people against using models

They say this could have been much worse than people

Let's have a look at the weather now with Tomasz Schafernaker.

Watch out for the fog tonight, or tomorrow morning for most of us

It could be very dense, particularly outside of London,

but even in central areas, it could be dense.

You might have to scrape that windscreen first thing.

This time of year when the fog forms, sometimes it doesn't

want to shift and if it sticks around all day,

Temperatures will be two or three degrees above freezing

By the Thames, it should be around 6 degrees.

I don't think the fog is going to stick around.

Friday, there could be fog in the morning.

Later in the afternoon, that fog should disperse and then

we are left with cloud and if we are lucky,

We'll be back tomorrow morning in Breakfast.

As we have seen today, the weather can be a thing of real beauty, but

also a real menace. Lovely shot taken this afternoon in Berkshire,

the sun lighting up the hillsides, with dense fog. And that fog is

dangerous. It is becoming up right now, with warnings out from the Met

Office. -- it is thickening right now. Not a pretty sight across

England, East Wales tomorrow morning. Dense patches of freezing

fog. Nor for all. Slippery surfaces. Take it easy on the roads. In the

far north of England, and Scotland and Northern Ireland, not so chilly.

And some drizzly rain across the Western Highlands and the islands.

These continued through the day on a brisk wind. Elsewhere, the winds

will be liked and that is the problem, because there was no wind

to shift that fog. Where do you have got fog, it could stick around for

much of that of. In