13/03/2014 BBC London News

Good evening. The Mayor believes London could

become the global leader in emerging technology and today outlindd his

vision for the capital to t`ke on the world and rival the likds of

Silicon Valley in the United States. Boris Johnson wants to expand the

innovation in Old Street to the rest of the city. Today he brought

together a group of industrx experts to help him achieve his ambhtion.

Our political correspondent, Karl Mercer, reports.

This is the throbbing gizmo behind the whole thing. This is thd

superfast cabinet. Technology may not be the Mayor's strong point but

if he's not exactly part of the IT crowd he knows how much it could

mean to the capital. This w`s him this morning at yet another launch

in what has been named Tec City the area around Old Street in e`st

London and it came with a bold pledge. It is the commercial capital

of the world, the financial capital of the world, it is the cultural,

the artistic capital of the world. It is the scientific capital of

Europe now and it is the tech capital of the world. That lay not

yet be strictly true. Silicon Valley in San Francisco will argue it has

got a bit more to offer than Silicon roundabout in East London. @t this

point, London isn't close to rivalling Silicon Valley in terms of

wealth creation, in terms of business creation in terms of

entrepreneurialism and technology and venture capitalists. It is not

close to rivalling it but it is very exciting and a very important

emerging sector. Tec City is growing and politicians like to att`ch

themselves to success storids. But with the area going up, so the rents

for some of the smaller firls who first started this boom. St`rt`ups

are starting to be priced ott of Shoreditch. That is what we try to

do, we have partnerships and other things with corporates that help us

to subsidise the cost of st`rt`ups' memberships to be at Tech Htb so

they can stay in Shoreditch. This is Little Printer. It is our wdb

connected receipt printer, print out news and gossip from all ovdr the

web. Matt Webb's firm has already been moved out of one officd to make

way for new housing and thex'll have to move out again soon. Not ideal

but good for the area, he s`ys. It is a problem. It is great to be in

the area and I want to be strrounded by people. Is it that the H`ckney?

`` is it bad that Hackney? This is my other hat, if they have the

chance of getting better business rates to help, it would be ` great

thing but it would be a shale for the area if this network dissipated.

This is a good starter base. But there are other parts of London

where we are going to expand. Croydon is starting to take off

Croydon is going to be regenerated. I am not going to deny it, the cost

of rent is obviously a factor. London will continue to havd a

considerable lead. It will be a battle, London is fighting of the

cities in the UK and Europe to be in the lead.

The Met has withdrawn an attempt to block claims for compensation

brought by women who were allegedly deceived into sexual relationships

with undercover police officers Let's get more from Gareth Furby,

who's at Scotland Yard for ts now. This is all about The Met's response

the claims undercover officdrs got involved with sexual relationships

with some women without revdaling who they were. Five women are

bringing legal action. They argue they suffered intense, emothonal

trauma. The Met was planning to block this in the High Court. But

there has been a change of heart and the context of this is, the Home

Secretary's announcement thdre will be a public enquiry into thhs

affair. The Met has said tonight it would not be appropriate or

proportionate to go ahead whth this application to strike out these

claims. But it is not saying whether it is more or less likely to settle

with the women. A new study has revealed th`t more

than 200 skyscrapers are in the pipeline for London, mostly in the

East and centre of the city. Victoria Graham reports now on what

impact the new buildings will have on London's skyline.

The past... Present... And future. This is how London could look in ten

years. Our skyline has changed and is changing and it is about to get

more crowded. In response to the housing strategy, a think t`nk

looked into how London's local authorities were tackling the need

for more housing. Collating figures, 236 new buildings `re on

their way, all at least 20 stories high. Almost half have alre`dy been

approved and most will be residential. There is no dotbt a

building so many towers will radically altered the skyline, but

the impact would depend on what the towers individually look like and

where they are located. It hs not just about the positioning of a

building, it is about its ddsign which can divide opinion. T`ke this

tower in North Kensington. Ht was not seen as trendy when it was built

and it was hated and seen as a blot on the landscape. But it became a

listed building in 1998 and now it is a place to live. It helpdd solve

a housing crisis over 50 ye`rs ago so could we see the building boom of

the 60s return? We need mord homes, but for different reasons than what

we needed in the 60s. In thd 60s we were building more homes because of

the shortage after the Second World War. But we are doing it now because

we are desperately short of housing in London. With the need to

accommodate 1 million more people over the next few years, it seems in

terms of London's growth, the only way is up.

That's it from me. So let md hand you over to Elizabeth for the

weather forecast. The fog is reforming as we speak.

Another foggy day tomorrow. Temperatures down to single figures.

We have a Met Office warning out, poor visibility into tomorrow

morning's rush hour and this could lead to potential travel problems.

The fog will have cleared the most areas into the late part of the

morning to be replaced with lots of sunshine. As we head into the

afternoon, it will clear quhcker than it did today across parts of

the Thames estuary, temperatures than it did today across parts of

the Thames estuary, temperatures could be 17 or 18 degrees. Now we

will get the National forecast. It has been a funny day. Warm and

sunny for some, cool and mystique for others, cloudy and damp for a

few. Wet weather getting into northern Scotland tonight. Fog is

the issue. It already is across the heart of England with thick patches.

It could become widespread through the rest of the night. Touches of

frost where the skies remain clear for