25/07/2014 BBC London News

A special on the soaring cost of housing tonight. With house prices

and rents at record highs, the shortage of homes that Londoners can

afford is at real crisis. I think this generation is going to

struggle. Houses are only worth what people will pay for them. It is

ridiculous, nobody can afford a house in this area. The night we are

looking for solutions and we have invited along some very opinionated

Londoners to help us. The rest of the day 's news: Failed by mental

health services, a coroners verdict on the violinist who died one week

after giving evidence at a sex abuse trial. And we celebrate our

athletes, in enjoying success at the Commonwealth Games.

A very warm welcome from BBC London News, live at King's Cross. This is

an area that is really being transformed, once it was down at

heel, now, hundreds of new homes are being built alongside shops and

offices, to create a buzzing new neighbourhood. This shows the scale

of the development, city seven acre site, one of the largest of elements

in Europe, and like across the capital, new homes are in high

demand. Because, as all Londoners know, property has become a hot

issue. In London the cost of renting is

rising, it has gone up 9.4% since last year, the average price, ?1200

every month. Charlie is a performer, a tutor and a waiter, anything to

pay his way, he still sometimes lives at home at the age of 30. Five

years ago, I had to live here. I have got to a stage where I can

afford my rent a little bit, not always, and I do still struggle...

Charlie is one of those better off, cosy parental home, the real problem

lies with families who rent. There are Londoners who are cheesed off

with the situation, high rents, short contract, they live like

teenagers in their childhood bedrooms. The biggest barrier is

house prices, they have gone up at least 20% here in the last year

alone, there are warnings of a cooling in the market but that means

prices are not rising as fast as they used to. I think it is terrible

for the younger generation. Unless you have a massive deposit thanks to

parents, or some other means, then it is very hard to get onto the

housing ladder. People who do not have the kind of income that allows

them to buy a big house, that is difficult. Yes, I agree, it is

pushing people out. If you are a first`time buyer with an average

wage and an average deposit of 18%, 99.7% of London's houses are out of

your price range. Add to that, the next issue, which is that of the

growing population. By 2021, London will be home to more than 9 million

people, the last time that London how is the same number as it does

now, there was a major rethink. Sounds like Harlow and Hemel

Hampstead were developed, if nothing is done today, there is a warning

that the very nature of the city could change. The nature of the city

is going to be changed. That brings us to the problem of creating new

homes. We will need 800000 x 2021, if you bought a house in Stratford

in 2005, you will have made an average of ?150,000 on your

property, here, the 2012 bounce is happening, if you do want to live in

the pad of an Olympian. Australia and Sweden were living here, I would

see some of my opponents living here, and into the food court, I

would be scoping them out, looking at any sign of weakness, looking at

how they were walking and talking! In King's Cross many properties are

out of the average price range, but they have agreed to have a healthy

mix. Not just shared ownership and shared equity but some key worker

protected as well. We have got specialist accommodation for older

people. We are not building enough homes to keep up with growth, some

will end up buying, more will end up renting, and the problems will begin

again. We will come to house prices in a

moment, we have heard about the population increase, 800,000 homes

by 2021, in seven years, that is more than 100,000 a year. This is

aiming to build 42,000 homes every year, that is hardly scratching the

surface. The number of homes being delivered

at the moment are very high, and they are quite compare to what has

been delivered historically, the problem is, historically, too few

homes are being built. There are structural issues which need to be

addressed. You have an aim to build ultra`zoo thousand homes every year.

The merits of the latest population figures, and he said, look,

fundamentally, we need to be bolder and we need to set a bigger

target... You are not going to meet that target... It is a collective

effort, it is very honest, collective effort of national

government, local government, Merrill government and the industry.

Unless we come together and do that it is going to be difficult to

tackle it. `` mayoral government. We heard about the Royal Victoria

docks, the mayor of new is outrage there is not enough for affordable

homes. The Mount Pleasant site, the mayor has called it in and he is

considering for the developer do have homes. It is more like 50%

according to the local developer. The mayor pushes very hard for

affordable houses, he has taken new powers and as a result this year you

will see more homes, more affordable homes built on any point since 1980.

It is not just affordable housing, it is improving the rented sector,

it is helping people buy part paths rent. Something I really want to do

is take you out, get out of the marketing suite and visit a whole

load of amazing schemes... What people want is not to have a whole

group of young people living and working here, who do not qualify for

housing support, you may be living with parents, and who cannot afford

to have property here. You do not want that to be the legacy, Boris

Johnson does not want that to be his legacy.

Johnson does not want that to be his . Boris was very clear about is that

has been the issue, and being honest, and being bold, and

identifying it and saying it needs addressing, collectively, not just

the mayor about everyone. There is a breeding thing that I can show you,

when you take up my offer to go out, pocket homes, some of the smallest

developments... Just for the people you have been talking about. Housing

is a huge challenge, and all this week we have been floating some more

radical ideas, and you have been getting in touch with your opinions.

The first of our ideas to ease the housing shortage came from Sam, from

the Adam Smith Institute. His controversial suggestion was to

build homes on the green belt. Not surprisingly, a lot of you got in

touch. The green belt and the countryside

matters to all of us, we need it for clean air.

We need it as flood protection, the land acts as a sponge. We needed for

food security. In style model where renting is the

norm and leases are much lawn, but one landlord got in touch to feel

she doesn't `` to say she doesn't feel her rights are protected. If

people could feel sure they can get people out right away who are not

good tenants or who won't pay, all sorts of things like that, there

would be much more rented property on the market and better landlords

can. What about those plots around London not used? Journalist Dave

Hill says councils should be given greater powers to force developers

to build, but the home builders Federation says the problem lies in

council bureaucracy. Ultimately the local authority grants developers

planning permission and if that process is taking a lot of time, the

blame lasts lie with the local authority. Social housing expert

Lord Best suggested older people should downsize to allow families

access to bigger homes. There was an enormous response.

That's just a glimpse at some of the feedback we've been getting from our

housing series. Lots of difficult questions, no easy answers. Thanks

for getting in touch. Thanks indeed forgetting in touch.

Deputy Mayor for housing is still with us and we are joined by

Baroness Valentine and Owen Jones, columnist at the Guardian. Baroness

Valentine, if we are in danger of losing or not attracting key workers

to the capital, it's unpopular, as we heard, but do you think building

of the green belt should be considered? Well, there's no simple

solution to building the numbers of houses we need. You have to do lots

of things and the main thing is probably incentivising the local

authorities to feel more empowered to build and for the May to step in

if they won't build. So don't build on green belt land? A lot of viewers

are against that. They say you mustn't build on green belt. The

trouble is the size of the problem. There are no nice solutions. There

is some green belt land which is actually just rubbish land. One has

to get beneath the surface of what's called green belt land and look at

what it is. We would be very keen on the Maher having a look at the green

belt around London. It is in parks. We heard the German model. Have they

got it right? What about the idea of changing the rental market, longer

tenancies and caps on increases? That works pretty well in Berlin. At

the moment, we have a situation where one in four Londoners are

receiving housing benefit. The majority of people in work and we

are subsidising private landlords, effectively. We should be

controlling rents and having secured tenancy agreements. Another problem

is the number of families in the private rented sector has doubled in

five years. How can you have a family with security if your kids

are moved from school to cool ` school to school? As well as

controlling rents, a good deal for the taxpayer, reduce housing

benefits, and increase securities for families. What we have to do is

get people investing in housing. If you start capping their returns, you

are driving out investors. Richard? Rents have gone up more in Berlin

than in London in five years. The problem with rent controls is they

can lead to an increase in rents and they can also lead to a real

deterioration in the quality of homes. We did have rent controls in

this country. It's right to say there are changes needed in the

rented sector and one thing we need to do is attract pension fund money

to build purpose`built homes. Lots of people have been in touch about

stopping people buying second homes, properties left empty. We've

got local councils that aren't even using their empty house tax,

charging 50% extra council tax for people who leave their homes empty

for two years or more, why don't you enforce that? We don't have the

power to do that. They have the powers to use it. We've written to

them to say they should charge council tax if the properties are

empty. But it is 0.6% of the housing stock London has. We shouldn't kid

ourselves. We need new homes. 66,000 empty homes in London and local

authorities have the power to take them under control if they are left

in that hasn't been enforced properly. Missing from this is the

key role of council housing. What happened is we have 5 million people

on the social housing waiting list because successive governments

failed to replace the stock sold off in the 1980s. That means lifting the

cap on councils. That means Boris Johnson has proposed it, having

accountancy rules like Western European countries. Let me put that

to Baroness Valentine. Would you be in favour of the cap being lifted so

they could build more? Absolutely. When you look at this 30 year

picture you can see the falloff in house`building at the point the

local authorities stopped building. In a careful way, not runaway

councils like we've had in the past, but yes, absolutely. Do they

have the skills and ambition to build these numbers? They have to

have a lot more financial incentive and a lot more encouragement. Only

four borough is built over 1000 houses last year. They are why

behind their targets. Why aren't you doing more to force large companies

to build on land they already own? doing more to force large companies

to build on land they That was one of the questions raised. Use it or

lose it or at least tax it. I'd like to pick up on the council house

building. You have a consensus that this is part of the solution but not

the only solution to building more homes. Over half the borrowers in

London have their own house`building programme as a result of funding

from the Mayor. What about those schemes under construction but

aren't being built? Says a bigger problem. The bigger problem is the

build`out rate. When those schemes start, the homes are delivered very

slowly and that's why we need to attract new developers and new forms

of finance. Can any Mayor build enough homes at the rate the capital

needs, yes or no? It's not just the job of the Mayor. Yes or no? Yes

with the powers. London can build them. Yes with the powers. Thank you

so much to you, and for you at home for giving us your feedback and

joining in the conversation. It will continue because this is a long`term

issue for the capital. Now it's time to hand you over to Victoria for the

rest of the day's news. A coroner has said he cannot be sure

that a violinist who died of an overdose after giving evidence

against a teacher who had abused her did intend to kill herself. But the

coroner did criticise the failure to provide sport for Francis and Dred

and other vulnerable witnesses. She took of fatal overdose last year. A

sublime violinist whose life was ruined by sexual abuse. Francis

Andrade was just 14 when it began in 1978 at the place she thought was

home. This was her abuser, Michael Brewer, a director of the celebrated

Cheatham School of music in Manchester. A renowned fixture in

the world of choral recitals, honoured by the Queen. Early last

year, Brewer was on trial for the abuse and Mrs Andrade was the key

witness against him. But in court she was called a liar and a

fantasist. Her husband said she felt she was on trial. A week later she

took her own life and didn't live to see Brewer jailed for six years. The

coroner said Mrs Andrade had found the whole process extremely

traumatic. Which is why he made a number of recommendations to the

director of proper ` Director of Public Prosecutions calling for the

legal system to be much more sensitive when dealing with

vulnerable witnesses like Mrs Andrade. Those calls for changing

the way witnesses are handled in courts were welcomed by her husband,

spoke afterwards. I think that all the services involved really looked

into what went wrong and they will tighten up their measures and

hopefully for the next lot of victims something will have changed

for the better. Last year dozens of people came to witness this musical

eulogy to Francis Andrade, a talented, sensitive violinist who

had to live through abuse and then relived the excruciating pain of

telling it in court. Experiences that ruined her life and underpinned

her death. More claims have emerged that a

cover`up took place to protect the reputations of politicians following

allegations of abuse at the Angels Road children's home in south

London. The care home has been at the centre of controversy since a

former police detective who investigated the claims in the late

1990s said he was taken off the case when it appeared high`ranking

politicians were linked to the abuse. Nigel Goldy has now told the

BBC about his suspicions of a cover`up. At the time, and

subsequently, there was some high`level decisions about not

wanting to open up issues that related to public figures. Of whom

there were suggestions they had been visiting this children's home. A

cover`up. It's the second day of the common run of games in Glasgow. We

can get an update on the role our local athletes have played. Please

welcome Ashley McKenzie and Nick Coda Davies. Celebrations and

celebrity status for the two Londoners who won gold in judo last

night. We said it would be really funny if the person who goes last,

everyone has macro won gold, and I worked out I would be last. When you

won, you pointed to your six`pack. It was meant to be my badge. The

crowd are on their feet. Joanna Russell wins gold for England. This

afternoon a Commonwealth Games gold model food Joanna Russell to add to

those already won in the Olympics and World Championships. It's the

event I was spotted forward and I first started so it means a lot to

me. Fantastic to win here today. Over the moon. Essex swimmer Roberto

have only qualified third fastest for this evening 's final of the 400

metres individual medley. Definitely have a good chance of a medal and

that's what we are aiming for. Good swimmers in there. We love the

challenge. Within the next half`hour Camberley judo club's Owen Livesey

will be trying to win gold in the final of the men's under 81

kilograms category. No joy that Amber Hill in the shooting. She

missed out on a place in the middle stages. The Corbin sisters from

Tottenham did their bit to dazzle watching royal eyes as England's

netball is beat Wales 65, 25 in their first match of the games. `

65`25. Really good start for us. Gold galore so far for London's

athletes and hopefully more to come. 50 years ago today a DJ called Tony

Blackburn played his first record on radio Caroline. The year was 1964.

He's not looked back. He went on to launch radio one and two night on

our radio station, BBC London 94.9, he will host a special anniversary

show. Artists from the 80s back at

Marylebone high Street this week remembering the radio London Soul

night out back in the building where it all began. Even Stevie wonder

turned up once to fact Tony Blackburn, who and up with it. `

came up with it. From pirate out at sea to the mainstream, there aren't

many DJs still going to first spoke on the airwaves 50 years ago. One of

the incredible things about Tony is 50 years in a very, very risky

business, very insecure business, and he's never had a week out of

work. He was the original shock jock, first illegally on the boat

off the coast of Essex and then as the first voice on radio one. We

were slightly separate from Broadcasting House. We were the

naughty people. The others up there thought we don't want to know them,

they are down there. He always played his beloveds sold music. I

was amazed how little of that music was being played. I did have a say

in everything I did on the breakfast show. I've always put Soul music

into my programmes. He's inspired countless broadcasters ever since.

Pat Sharp was his warm up act on Sundays. Over the years he helped

the careers of 5`star, Jackie Graham and Jocelyn Brown to name just a few

celebrating with him tonight. I grew up with that voice. When I got to

meet him, it was like oh my god. He's never changed. Nor has he

tired. At 71 he still works six days a week. From the BBC this evening he

has a special show across all the local radio stations, starting in

about 15 minutes. He is taking to the microphone again to mark his

half`century in broadcasting. Tony is already getting ready for

his special show this evening. You can hear it on your local radio

station from 7pm. Let's get a check on the weather

with Peter. We've had a few storms today. It boiled over this

afternoon. Temperatures rose, but it sparked off some storms. There have

been some lively ones around. Further changes over the weekend. It

will turn cooler and fresher and that will be a welcome change for

many, particularly overnight. The storms came into macro pulses. One

lot running quite quickly across London and towards the south`west. A

few problems with flash flooding. Further storms behind that. The

sting is going out of those now, we aren't seeing much lightning. Still

some showers to come over the next few hours, but they will fade away

so by midnight pretty much everywhere will be dry. The rest of

the night, a light northerly breeze. Temperatures still just as high,

holding at around 16 or 17 Celsius. What about the weekend? This is how

Saturday starts, with some clout. That will break up nicely through

the day. We still have warm air in place so that could set off one or

two showers, may lead to the east of London through the afternoon. Some

of them could be heavy, perhaps across Essex. Temperatures still

getting up to the high 20s. A very warm afternoon for most. Saturday

evening, the showers start to move away. The wind swinging round to a

north`westerly direction overnight and that will bring in some fresher

weather for some day. Still lots of dry weather, the odd shower drifting

away towards the North East, but most places will stay dry with sunny

spells. In the sunshine, temperatures are lower, but 23 to 25

is a really nice day. We will keep that slightly cooler weather going

into the early part of next week, but don't give up on summer.

A reminder of the headlines. The UK economy is now bigger than it

was before the financial crisis in 2008. It grew by 0.8% in the second

quarter of this year. The Chancellor has welcomed the news but warned

against complacency. Efforts to secure a cease`fire

between Israel and Hamas have intensified as a number of dead

continues to rise. More than 800 Palestinians and 36 Israelis have

now been killed. The mother of three`year`old Mikhail

pula has pleaded guilty to killing her son in Edinburgh in January. She

admitted repeatedly beating her son and hiding his body in woodland.

That's it. I'll be back later with our next news at 10:25pm. From all

of us, have a lovely weekend. Goodbye.

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