:00:00. > :00:10.a special edition of Newsnight on the crisis in Iraq
:00:11. > :00:16.Good evening and welcome to BBC London News. I'm Alex Btshill.
:00:17. > :00:19.The Mayor has promised to hdlp thousands of Londoners on to
:00:20. > :00:21.the property ladder by kickstarting house building in the capit`l.
:00:22. > :00:25.Boris Johnson and the Chancdllor today promised to build 50,000 new
:00:26. > :00:31.Up to 20 new housing zones will be created across London,
:00:32. > :00:33.with City Hall and central government contributing
:00:34. > :00:38.But Labour has criticised the Mayor, saying after six years
:00:39. > :00:41.in office these latest plans are "too little, too late".
:00:42. > :00:46.As brownfield sites go, they don't come much browner than
:00:47. > :00:51.Waste ground for 20 years, ht's a site that's been hard to develop.
:00:52. > :00:55.But this morning the cavalrx arrived bursting with ideas and mondy.
:00:56. > :00:59.They say it will transform this site and 20 others like it into housing,
:01:00. > :01:09.The Chancellor is promising ?20 million to help set up so`c`lled
:01:10. > :01:15.Freeing up planning rules and promising to clean up contalinated
:01:16. > :01:19.We need to see more homes btilt on sites
:01:20. > :01:24.I am giving the Mayor new powers to speed up the planning,
:01:25. > :01:28.but also money so we get thd schools and the roads and the jobs that make
:01:29. > :01:36.But is it right to do the dhrty work for developers with public loney,
:01:37. > :01:39.handing them with cleaned up plots with good transport links?
:01:40. > :01:43.There are tonnes of sites across London like this that haven't made
:01:44. > :01:49.it through any of the housing boom cycles, because they don't have the
:01:50. > :01:53.transport links or there's ` problem with poisoning of the land, so if
:01:54. > :01:56.you can address those with ` bit of taxpayer money,
:01:57. > :02:00.that is the right thing to do otherwise they will never h`ppen.
:02:01. > :02:02.Some of the homes would have to be affordable.
:02:03. > :02:06.That is welcomed in Tower H`mlets, where there's 24,000 households
:02:07. > :02:17.I have friends who lived on the Isle of Dogs for years with their parents
:02:18. > :02:24.We are in a flat and with the children I'd like a garden but
:02:25. > :02:29.We need houses with gardens so we can play.
:02:30. > :02:36.On top of that we have this highest density in Europe which means future
:02:37. > :02:42.Building will not take placd here in Enfield until 2016.
:02:43. > :02:48.Making an announcement is one thing, following through is the hard part.
:02:49. > :02:52.We need to make sure these homes are genuinely affordable to Londoners,
:02:53. > :02:55.particularly on low and middle incomes.
:02:56. > :02:58.Boris Johnson has had six ydars to get a grip on the housing crisis
:02:59. > :03:03.London's only building at the moment one third
:03:04. > :03:06.of the homes every year that the Mayor has estimated that we need.
:03:07. > :03:09.Expectations will be high not just from council leaders but
:03:10. > :03:18.Six men have been jailed for a total of more than 70 years
:03:19. > :03:21.after pushing a man into thd path of a lorry as he tried to chase
:03:22. > :03:25.Shammi Atwal died running after a gang of armed men who'd
:03:26. > :03:27.raided his warehouse in Barking and threatened his wife.
:03:28. > :03:32.The man running from right`to`left in
:03:33. > :03:37.He's just witnessed six men who robbed his warehouse.
:03:38. > :03:41.The judge described this as an act of considerable courage,
:03:42. > :03:44.but it's an act that ultimately cost him his life.
:03:45. > :03:47.As the men escaped Mr Atwal and other members of staff chased
:03:48. > :03:53.They got into an altercation with the men and tried to get his wife's
:03:54. > :03:58.handbag back but one of thel pushed him into the path of a lorrx.
:03:59. > :04:01.He was a God`fearing man, a religious person.
:04:02. > :04:07.He was happy, always had a smile on his f`ce.
:04:08. > :04:14.What can one say about someone as dearly loved as that
:04:15. > :04:20.These six men, five of them from Lithuania, were today criticised
:04:21. > :04:24.by the judge for refusing to reveal which one of them pushed Mr Atwal.
:04:25. > :04:26.For that reason all six werd convicted of manslaughter
:04:27. > :04:31.They managed to steal just ?1,0 0, money that was
:04:32. > :04:40.He was a lovely man, a respdcted man, a religious man, hard`working.
:04:41. > :04:42.Mr Atwal had been a business partner here for almost
:04:43. > :04:46.20 years and leaves behind two children, aged four and sevdn.
:04:47. > :04:50.In court today, the QC said no sentence will make up
:04:51. > :04:55.You have shown no remorse or regret for the consequences of your
:04:56. > :05:00.actions, but the last actions of Mr Atwal were clearly for hhs wife.
:05:01. > :05:06.The men received sentences of between 11 and 13 years.
:05:07. > :05:10.London's newest tunnel under the Thames has been unveiled today.
:05:11. > :05:13.The Thames Tunnel, which is part of the ?15 billion
:05:14. > :05:16.Crossrail project, stretches for almost two`and`a`half mhles
:05:17. > :05:19.When it's open in 2018, it will help reduce journey times
:05:20. > :05:25.This is a fantastic engineering feat that's been achieved.
:05:26. > :05:29.What you see today is just `nother example of some phenomenal work
:05:30. > :05:33.being done at taking this ttnnel under the river, on time,
:05:34. > :05:41.a high`quality tunnel in the best tradition of Brtnel
:05:42. > :05:44.Spikes which were installed outside a block of flats in Southwark to
:05:45. > :05:47.stop homeless people from sleeping there have been removed.
:05:48. > :05:50.More than 125,000 people signed a petition against them,
:05:51. > :05:54.and the Mayor called them "tgly self`defeating and stupid."
:05:55. > :05:59.Southwark Council said it w`s relieved they'd been taken out.
:06:00. > :06:02.Transport for London has outlined a number of trials it'll be
:06:03. > :06:05.carrying out to try and makd the streets safer for cyclists.
:06:06. > :06:08.It wants to test quieter HGVs and detection equipment on London buses.
:06:09. > :06:11.It's aiming to reduce the ntmber of people killed or seriously hnjured
:06:12. > :06:19.That is it for now from me, but let's find out what the weather
:06:20. > :06:42.The weekend, a little bit fresher, maybe 21 or 22, but in the sunshine
:06:43. > :06:46.it will feel warm enough. Wd have potentially one or two rumbles of
:06:47. > :06:49.thunder on the way through the early hours of the morning. Mainlx towards
:06:50. > :06:54.the west of London. Most of us should have a dry night. By the
:06:55. > :06:59.early hours of the morning, or 6 Celsius. Quite ugly start on
:07:00. > :07:04.Saturday. Tomorrow, a bit more cloud in the sky. Not quite as hot as the
:07:05. > :07:09.last couple of days. Temper`tures will be a bit lower. We havd a
:07:10. > :07:14.breeze coming out of the North Sea. Temperatures are a couple of degrees
:07:15. > :07:19.lower. How about Sunday? Let's look at it. Very similar. Spot the
:07:20. > :07:23.difference. Temperatures ond or two degrees lower, not that you would
:07:24. > :07:27.really notice the differencd. On the whole, a fine weekend, go ott and
:07:28. > :07:33.enjoy it. With the outlook for the next couple of days, looking good,
:07:34. > :07:38.temperatures in the 20s. Now the West -- now the National forecast.
:07:39. > :07:42.Good evening. Over the last two days in the south of England there has
:07:43. > :07:46.been a lot of sunshine and temperatures up to 26 degrees. Don't
:07:47. > :07:50.expect temperatures that high this weekend, cooler for many. A lot of
:07:51. > :07:56.dry weather even if it is a little bit on the cloudy side at times We
:07:57. > :07:58.see the cloud increasing this afternoon and through the evening.