02/04/2014 BBC London News

brightness between the clouds. The outlook is mixed. Thank you. That is

all from us for now, now we joined the BBC News teams where you are.

Tonight on BBC London News: The house price gap between London and

the rest of the UK is the widest on record. It is a bit scary. It seems

that you can only live in London if you are minted.

We examine the Mayor's plans to help solve the housing crisis.

ALso tonight: Victory for the Ford workers who took on the car giant

over millions of pounds of lost pensions.

Will Terminal two have a more successful opening than neighbouring

T5? Passengers test out the new facilities at Heathrow.

Plus, the move to get more women to take up the baton.

Good evening. The gap between house prices in London and the rest of the

country has reached a record high. Prices in the capital have risen by

18% over the last year according to the Nationwide Building Society.

That's almost double the national average. It's potentially good news

for homeowners. But for those already struggling to get onto the

property ladder, owning their own home now seems even more out of

reach. First night, the mayor's plans to find a solution. Today

Boris Johnson's opponents accused him for failing to get a grip on the

problem. Here is our political editor.

Some do not like what the mayor is allowing to happen to the skyline.

He says tall buildings are fine in the right place. They will be needed

to fulfil the target of 42,000 new homes a year. The problems we face

have been 30 years in the making. I think you will agree that the

panoply of measures we are bringing together give us a better chance of

dealing with London's housing crisis than any previous plan. The pace of

affordable building has slackened. In his first mayoral term with a

flourish just before his real action, there were 57,000 affordable

homes completed. In the last two years, there have just been 18,000.

His target now of 42,000 homes of all kinds each year includes 17,000

deemed affordable of which 4500 will be for social rent. I do not think

he can sit there and get away with saying how wonderful his record has

been when the figures for the number of homes being built in the city

every year do not back the clam up. There is a social aspect to this.

People in low paid jobs will be driven out of the centre. Longer

working days for them come less time with their children, it is a social

problem we will have to deal with later. And generally a much lower

quality of life. Concerns about the rising cost of renting, but rent

controls were rejected. It has tended to destroy the private rented

sector and reduce the quality of housing as a result. By using land

owned by the Greater London authority like this site, creating

housing zones and working closely with developers, the mayor believes

he can get the Capitol Building again.

Our reporter joins us now. I know you spent the day in Peckham. First,

remind us of the headline figures. In London, house prices have gone up

18% in the past year. The Nationwide Building Society says a typical

London house prices more than ?360,000. That is the strongest

growth since 2003. We were in Peckham today and it is amazing how

news of the latest rise was greeted. We spoke to a lady who got her house

in Peckham Rye 18 years ago and she thinks the value has gone up

ninefold. Down the road, we met Melanie. She knows all about buying

and selling. She is an estate agent. An indication of how tough it

is for first`time buyers, she can't get on the property ladder. That

gives you an indication of the challenges. We had a look at the

figures. It is interesting. Every London borough except for one,

Harrow, saw at least a 10% rise in property prices. The three highest,

Brent, up 31%. Lambert, 30%. Southwark, 26%. The growth numbers

just highlight for people trying to move house, it is just becoming

harder to reach. Also today whenever we hear these figures, we talk about

fears of a housing bubble which ultimately will burst. The

Nationwide Building Society have been saying in terms of the future

it is not sustainable. Wages are not going up at the rate rapidly prices

are. Their chief economist was talking about a more sustained

slowdown in property prices. Traditionally London has done well

when other parts of the country have fallen into negative equity. For

now, people are prepared to pay way over the odds. For now, thank you.

Let us cross now to join our political editor who is at City

Hall. We have just heard from Nick. Some of the headline figures.

Earlier we heard from the mayor. Is he right to feel optimistic? I think

there is certainly room for optimism about the overall house`building

picture. The pace does appear to be picking up. The signs are that more

registrations are coming forward from developers saying they are

about to build. The question is whether it will be the right kind of

housing in the right areas meeting local needs. And the big question of

affordability. During an economic slowdown, developers were building

fewer homes to sell because the demand was not so great. The

Conservative mayor was elbowedG able to build affordable homes using

money from a Labour government providing subsidy to the developers.

Encourage them. Under the coalition government, the investment available

has contracted considerably. In the last two years, there has been a

slowdown of house`building of all kinds. Now we see this sign of

economic recovery, we see the pace, we can see the house values over the

last year and that is a signal to developers. They want to build more

and there are signs of that already. The question, the test for the

mayor, is he getting, is he leave ring enough affordable housing out

of the developers? Is he prepared to let them build when there is not

enough affordable homes? `` is he getting enough affordable housing? A

lot at stake. It is a big issue. Not just the power over housing budget,

but there is a lot of land he has been given, particularly any London.

40% in Barking alone. There is a pressure for him to generate more

housing and land where he can pull the levers and get transport

infrastructure as well. A number of people are beginning to say, does he

like these tall buildings full of apartments close to the River that

are of interest to foreign investors? Does he like them too

much? Is he paying enough attention to creating more family immunity

based housing throughout London? `` community`based housing. Thank you.

Coming up later in the programme: A call for councils to do more to

prevent cycling deaths in the capital.

A Met Police firearms officer who's taken the force to an employment

tribunal today said she felt frightened and threatened by her

line manager. Carol Howard also alleged she received less favourable

treatment than others, citing racial and sexual discrimination. Our home

affairs correspondent Guy Smith is outside Scotland Yard now. Remind us

why this case has ended up at a tribunal. She claims she alerted the

Met Police twice about allegations against her line manager for

bullying and disco nation. Once in 2012 and once last year ``

discrimination. She claimed there was an inadequate investigation.

Carol Howard is a firearms officer for the diplomatic protection group

who protect embassies and government ministers. She says there are 700

officers and she is only one of two lack female officers in the

specialist elite unit. `` black. She has had an unblemished career. No

complaints against her from the public or her peers will stop she

says, I quote, as a black woman, it was hard enough to fit into this

organisation. She says she has worked hard to perform. She claims

her career was sabotaged by her line manager because she was a black

female. Ironically, London 2012, during the Olympics, she became the

poster girl, you may say, for the diplomatic protection group. Now she

thinks that was just tokenism. A difficult and challenging time for

the Met Police given their targets for recruitment. Absolutely. Then at

Hogan Howe, the commissioner, only last week he was talking about a

50`50 recruitment policy `` Sir Bernard Hogan`Howe. He wants one

ethnic minority officer for every white officer. Whatever the

outcome, it is not encouraging for people to join. Tomorrow it is

expected but we have not got confirmation that the Acting

Inspector David Kelly will defend himself against the allegations. He

will be one of 12 witnesses for the Met Police. Thank you.

A father who stabbed his son to death has been convicted of his

murder. George Josef, 77, attacked his son with a kitchen knife last

October. A court heard he intervened in a row between his mother and

father regarding rent. The suspect in trail of the murder

of PC Keith Blakelock during the Broadwater Farm riots in 1985 has

declined to give evidence in his defence. The policeman was killed as

he and other officers went to assist firefighters at a blaze on the

Tottenham estate. Nicky Jacobs who was 16 at the time is accused of

stabbing the policeman to death during the riots. He denies the

charges. The car manufacturer Ford has

reached a deal with the Unite union in a long`running dispute over more

than 1,000 workers' pensions. Plants in Basildon and Enfield were taken

over by a company called Visteon in 2000. But employees there claim they

lost up to half their pensions when Visteon went into administration

five years ago. Today Ford has made an undisclosed offer to those

affected. Our political correspondent Karl Mercer has the

latest. Marching for what could be the last

time, the former Ford workers who've spent five years fighting the

company to try and get more of their pension money back. Many had spent

decades working for Ford and were transferred to another company

called Visteon. They were told their pensions would be protected, but

when the first went bust in 2009, they were hit in the pocket. I

thought either security in retirement and to find that I had

lost 40% of it and had to pay money back, it was a bit of a below. All

of the plans I had for my latter years have been dissolved overnight

yeah it was a bitter blow. I will keep going if we do not get what we

want. What was mine, what I paid in, that is what they owe me. I want

it back. Today it appears a deal could be on the table. The deal will

be put to the pensioners next week. It is not going to be all that we

want. It is not going to be what we deserve, but it will go a long way.

That is I think a victory. It's believed around 1,500 pensioners

will get lump sums under the new deal. They hope it'll be the end of

their battle and the end of protests like today's.

Councils are failing to do enough to improve cycling safety on London's

roads, so says the the campaign group Stop Killing Cyclists which

claims that only a handful of authorities are planning to install

segregated routes in the near future. They're calling for further

investment to reduce casualties, as Gareth Furby reports.

Tonight there is a row brewing between the campaign group and

councils. Yes. This started at lunchtime when the group appeared

outside Westminster City Hall and they first of all unveiled a banner

with 54 Red Cross is on that representing the 54 cyclists who

have died since 2010. Then they produced even Billy McReddie results

from a Freedom of Information Act requests which they say shows that

24 London boroughs installed no cycle lanes since the last London

elections and only three installed any cycle lanes since the last

London elections. Pretty strong figures from them. What has been the

response? London councils are not happy. They say the Freedom of

information request has been misinterpreted. A statement he says,

it is wrong to name Kensington and Chelsea as a borough that has no

segregated cycle lanes. They have three. London councils have issued a

statement saying, London local government is committed to making

the capital's rose as safe as possible for everyone. They recently

consulted on bringing in extra cycle safety measures applying to

lorries. ?100 million has been awarded 27 boroughs to and harms

cycling facilities. We know of course the debate over cycling

safety is a big issue. When Terminal five opened six years ago it turned

into a national embarrassment with chaos including lost luggage and

delays. Heathrow bosses say they've learned lessons and will try to

avoid the same problems when T2 opens in June. The airport is using

volunteer passengers to test the terminal ahead of the big day. Our

Transport Correspondent, Tom Edwards was there.

Welcome to terminal two, being put through its paces by over 1000

volunteers. You get a bit hitched on coming to the airport, it is like a

drug addiction. Terminal two was horrible before. Any nicely designed

space helps anyone's experience. It means waiting, departing and picking

up baggage. Yet I like it, I think it is nice. I came here at 12:40am,

there was no way of getting home, all the transport had finished. I'm

interested in how they are going to handle this. There were some

glitches. I assume there will be a feedback process. When you get the

boarding cards, there is no audio alternative. The opening of the last

terminal here was a disaster. Baggage was delayed and check`in was

suspended. This time the opening will be much softer. One airline

will be moved at a time over six`month. This terminal has cost

?2.5 billion of private money and the aim is to take on European

competitors but a third runway is still very much part of the plan.

That decision is for the government. Short`term, opening

terminal to will be a huge logistical challenge. Can you do it

without any glitches? Nobody can do it without glitches. What we aim to

do, as we did with the Olympics, is overcome the challenges without the

passengers seeing. We cannot guarantee the first they will be

perfect. The first real passengers will use the terminal in June.

When Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea Football

Club nearly 11 years ago it started a trend. It's now common`place for

the super rich to buy teams and lavish cash on players in the hope

of quick success and trophies. Tonight the Blues are in France for

their Champions League quarter final first leg with Paris St Germain `

the latest club to be transformed. Sara Orchard sent this report. With

just over 2000 tickets for away fans, getting into tonight's match

is proving popular Matic for Chelsea fans. I came down here on the off

chance that tickets might be on sale. `` problematic. It is just a

football game at the end of the day. It is indicative of the recent rise

of Paris St Germain. The Blues evolution started when Roman

Abramovich bought the club in 2003. The Paris St Germain story began

three years ago when they were bought. Before the investment

company spent a lot of money on it, Paris St Germain was a national

brand for the French. The investment company changed everything. In the

same way that Chelsea was chasing the Champions League season after

season, Paris St Germain is doing the same. QSI is essentially run by

the state of cat are `` Qatar. It is a major event for Qatar. Nobody knew

where it was a few years ago, now we all know where it is. The Paris St

Germain brand has been boosted by new players, including David

Beckham's four`month loan spell. Players live here in Paris while the

club picks up their tax bill. Chelsea are the trailblazers and

they remain favourites for tonight's fixture. Roman Abramovich

had to wait nine years for his first Champions League title but Paris St

Germain might not need to be so patient.

A children's author and illustrator who drew inspiration from her

childhood in the Crawley countryside will find out this week if she's won

a prestigious book award. Elys Dolan's first book "Weasels" has

been nominated for the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize. And she's

been back to her old school to read to pupils there, as Victoria Holland

reports. Weasel one is ready to go, weasel too is on stand`by. A young

illustrator, a trip back to school and captivated audience. Weasels

intent on domination is an off the wall idea but it has got children

interested. It is inspired by James Bond and the underground layers they

have. Author and illustrator Elys Dolan came back to the place where

it all began, the pre`prep school which was once an art block where

teachers nurtured her talent. Susie Winters was my personal tutor who

encouraged me to come down here to the art school and do things out of

hours. Although this is her first book, she has been nominated for

three awards. It seems it has captured the imagination of the

judging panel as well as the children here today. She's good at

reading stories and it is nice that it has pictures. My favourite bit

was the pictures where the weasels were planning an attack. Ten out of

ten. It is an amazing experience and really special when you think that

this building was the art school. They have someone coming back who

has been in this building as an artist, learning art and how to

draw, and she is coming back and showing them what she can do. Elys

Dolan's next book is out in April and she has been overwhelmed the

response to Weasels. Winning the prize could start a whole new

chapter for her. Good luck to her. Why are there so few women

conducting orchestras? It's a question that courted controversy

after some male musicians suggested the role might be too "physically

demanding" for females. Now, one college in South London aims to

challenge the shortage, and stereotypes with a new course in

conducting ` for women only. Here's our Arts Correspondent, Brenda

Emmanus. Marin Alsop conducts the last night

of the Proms, the first woman to lead the event in the festival's off

an 18 year history. Her appearance led to a fanfare of positivity.

However, there were some contentious comments which set fire to the

debate on female conductors. One conductor said... A Russian

conductor went further, claiming... It was such comment that inspired

Morley College to pioneer a new female only conducting course for 16

to 25`year`old musicians. I was already interested in conducting

when I heard about the course and it seemed like I would learn a lot so I

went for it. What has your experience been like? It has been

really good and I have learned lots of things. We have done a lot of

body language work as well as conducting. That has been good for

my performance in general. It was run by Alice Farnham stop what are

the challenges and why has the change taken so long? I do not know.

We felt that change is not happening and that is why we have done the

course. One of the issues I had was that I felt I wanted to be judged

will be a conductor and I have not warm the female only label much, and

I think that is true for many conductors. It is a fact that

worldwide things are changing. Female conductors have commanded

respect from their peers despite the criticisms of a minority. This

pioneering course at Morley College is seen as a significant step in we

addressing the gender balance in classical music, the start of a much

larger ambition. We've heard much about the pollution

levels today ` let's see what's happening over the next few days.

levels today ` let's see what's happening Thank you. Pollution

levels have been high across much of England, in particular the East. We

have had a lot of fine and dry weather today, and the cloud has

been and gone. We have got high pollution levels which is a

combination of industrial pollution and the Sahara desert dust. It is

moving across the East of England on the southeasterly wind. The

pollution level will reduce as we head towards the end of the week and

pick up winds from the Atlantic Ocean. This is the satellite picture

from the course of the day and you can see a lot of cloud, but across

the South East we have seen some fine and dry weather with

temperatures of 20 Celsius. The night it stays mainly dry but then

maybe clouds moving in, and you can see some of the rain bearing cloud

kept at bay across Berkshire and the West Country. Look at those

temperatures overnight. It is pretty mild with temperatures in double

figures for most. Tomorrow morning, we start off on a dry note with some

mist around. We should see a good deal of sunshine and the cloud will

begin to build up but pretty decent temperatures for early April at 17

or 18 Celsius. May be 19 or 20 Celsius in the city centres. A fine

end to the day on Thursday and on Friday, a cloudy start with the odd

shower around towards the Chilterns. Towards the afternoon, we pick up a

South West Lee winds, feeding us dry and bright weather. ``

south`westerly wind. Fresh winds of the Atlantic at the weekend that the

outlook is looking pretty nice for most of the London area. That is

what we like to hear. Y. The main headlines now... Parts of England

have experienced abnormally high levels of air pollution caused by a

combination of dust blown over from the Sahara and vehicle exhaust

emissions. People with lung or heart conditions have been told to take

special care. conditions have been told to take

special The house price gap between London and the rest of the UK is the

widest on record. Prices in the capital have risen by 18% over the

last year according to the Nationwide building society. More on

the day's stories on our website and Alex Bushill will be back with our

late news. From all of us on the team here ` thanks for watching and

have a lovely evening.