:00:16. > :00:19.Good evening. Welcome to BBC London news. A group of MPs is calling for
:00:20. > :00:22.the Metropolitan Police to be stripped of its responsibility for
:00:23. > :00:25.counter`terrorism. It's urging the Government to change the way
:00:26. > :00:28.terrorism is tackled in the UK, and says powers should be transferred to
:00:29. > :00:36.a national body so Scotland Yard can concentrate on policing in the
:00:37. > :00:41.capital. Alex Bushill reports. I am addressing you brothers. Their
:00:42. > :00:50.faces may be disguised, but not their accidents. It is thought
:00:51. > :00:59.around 400 Britons have travelled abroad for jihad. This young man was
:01:00. > :01:06.killed last summer, and this estate agent and his brother died last year
:01:07. > :01:09.fighting pro`Assad forces. Today, the home affairs committee said that
:01:10. > :01:12.more should be done to stop people travelling to Syria, and to make
:01:13. > :01:19.sure they are not a danger when they return home. The committee's key
:01:20. > :01:21.recommendation is to remove responsibility for tackling
:01:22. > :01:27.counter`terrorism from the Metropolitan police and transfer it
:01:28. > :01:30.to the National Crime Agency. MPs also called for improved oversight.
:01:31. > :01:38.The committee's chair believes freeing the Met Office role will
:01:39. > :01:42.free the Met Office up to police the capital. The best place for
:01:43. > :01:47.counter`terrorism is with the National Crime Agency, working with
:01:48. > :01:50.the Met and Greater Manchester Police in the West Midlands police
:01:51. > :01:57.and the other regional forces. It doesn't mean there is going to be no
:01:58. > :02:04.responsibility, just that it will be a national basis. But opponents say
:02:05. > :02:11.that the current system works well, and reverting to FBI model poses a
:02:12. > :02:16.risk. That have been no deaths recently as a result of suicide
:02:17. > :02:21.bombing in the United Kingdom. That is a record we can be proud of. It
:02:22. > :02:26.is undermining the system to suggest that we change it. There is no doubt
:02:27. > :02:31.the challenge from extremism is a complicated and changing one.
:02:32. > :02:34.Today's proposals are just one suggestion for how our security
:02:35. > :02:36.forces and the Met can rise to the challenge.
:02:37. > :02:41.Well, Alex is outside Scotland Yard for us this evening. Alex, what
:02:42. > :02:44.what's been the response to this? Any move to strip Scotland Yard of
:02:45. > :02:49.its control of counter`terrorism would be extremely controversial.
:02:50. > :02:52.Lord Blair has been speaking about this today, and he is fundamentally
:02:53. > :02:55.opposed to the recommendations. He says the current system is already
:02:56. > :03:00.based on a national level, which is what the Met does. He said very few
:03:01. > :03:08.of the terrorist plots he had ever heard about emerged from all are
:03:09. > :03:12.aimed at London. The Home Office have confirmed that they are to
:03:13. > :03:17.carry out a review to see if there are improvements that can be made.
:03:18. > :03:19.Alex, thank you very much. A 55`year`old man has appeared in
:03:20. > :03:22.court in Surrey charged with carrying out a robbery after he had
:03:23. > :03:25.absconded from an open prison. Michael Wheatley, who's nicknamed
:03:26. > :03:30.Skull Cracker, was arrested in East London on Wednesday.
:03:31. > :03:39.weapon and being on the run illegally. He was remanded in
:03:40. > :03:44.custody. A man has been arrested in
:03:45. > :03:47.connection with the murder of a woman who was founded dead at her
:03:48. > :03:51.home in north London this morning. The woman in her 60s was found with
:03:52. > :03:55.stab wounds at her flat in Kentish Town, which had been set on fire.
:03:56. > :03:58.Three other women, a man and a baby were rescued from other flats in the
:03:59. > :04:00.building. 44`year`old Peter Holboll is being held at a north London
:04:01. > :04:03.police station. There's been a big rise in the
:04:04. > :04:06.number of Londoners who are in work but unable to pay their rent.
:04:07. > :04:09.Government figures, highlighted by the Labour Party, show the number of
:04:10. > :04:12.workers claiming housing benefit has gone up 70% since the coalition came
:04:13. > :04:17.to power. Labour says it's costing taxpayers billions, but ministers
:04:18. > :04:28.insist the numbers are now dropping. Nick Beake has the story.
:04:29. > :04:32.We are not in a position to pay. They are the face of what Labour
:04:33. > :04:36.likes to call the cost of living crisis. This lady explained her
:04:37. > :04:39.housing situation to shadow ministers. She looks after her
:04:40. > :04:44.ten`year`old autistic daughter while her tenure all works `` while her
:04:45. > :04:52.husband works full`time, but he doesn't earn enough to pay the rent,
:04:53. > :04:58.so they claim Housing Benefit. It is not an option. You have to do so,
:04:59. > :05:01.because the rent is so huge. Research commissioned by Labour
:05:02. > :05:05.shows there were just over 150,000 Londoners in work but claiming
:05:06. > :05:10.Housing Benefit in May 2010, when the coalition came to power. That
:05:11. > :05:15.had jumped to more than 250,000 by the end of last year, a 69%
:05:16. > :05:20.increase. The biggest rises were in Barking and Dagenham, Haver in and
:05:21. > :05:27.Redbridge, but in Croydon, there was an 11 fold increase. That is truly
:05:28. > :05:32.shocking. It is a huge drain on taxpayers' money, but it also
:05:33. > :05:34.affects how so many families, including here in Croydon, are
:05:35. > :05:39.struggling with the rising cost of living. So why has the increase been
:05:40. > :05:42.so dramatic in Croydon? One significant factor is said to be the
:05:43. > :05:45.sheer number of people who have moved here to this outer borough
:05:46. > :05:50.because they can no longer afford to live more centrally.
:05:51. > :05:53.The Department for Work and Pensions claim to date was in fact cutting
:05:54. > :06:08.the cost of Housing Benefit. It told us:
:06:09. > :06:13.All agree housing is one of the biggest challenges London faces.
:06:14. > :06:16.Solutions can't come soon enough for the likes of Simone.
:06:17. > :06:20.The double Olympic champion Laura Trott was taken to hospital earlier
:06:21. > :06:23.with suspected concussion after crashing during the Women's Tour of
:06:24. > :06:29.Britain. The 22`year`old came off her bike after riding into a crash.
:06:30. > :06:33.She's now been discharged and has vowed to ride tomorrow when the race
:06:34. > :06:35.starts in her home town of Cheshunt in Hertfordshire.
:06:36. > :06:39.That's it. We'll be back tomorrow. Now let me hand you over to Sarah
:06:40. > :06:45.Keith Lucas for a look at the weekend weather.
:06:46. > :06:54.It was a bit hit and miss today, and that is the way it looks for the
:06:55. > :07:00.next couple of days. Tomorrow is windy, with heavy showers on the
:07:01. > :07:10.card will stop tonight, an area of rain, quite heavy at times, heading
:07:11. > :07:12.in. That will clear away tomorrow to leave sunny spells and scattered
:07:13. > :07:22.showers. Some brightness in between, temperatures up to 17 or 18
:07:23. > :07:29.Celsius. Staying and settled over the next few days. John Hammond will
:07:30. > :07:33.take you through your National forecast, where things are looking
:07:34. > :07:41.pretty unsettled for the next couple of days.
:07:42. > :07:44.Good evening. In this country, no two days of whether are stacked in
:07:45. > :07:53.this country, no two days of whether are Saky the same. But this weekend,
:07:54. > :07:59.it will feel like no two hours are the same. This area of low pressure
:08:00. > :08:04.is pushing in from the south-west, already bringing some pretty wet
:08:05. > :08:09.weather to southern and western parts of the UK. The rain will move
:08:10. > :08:19.northwards and eastwards, quite a lot of rain in places. Technically a
:08:20. > :08:28.fairly mild night, particularly in the south, but a lot of rain around
:08:29. > :08:30.to start the day. Behind that, the