:00:11. > :00:12.Good evening and welcome to BBC London News.
:00:13. > :00:17.We start tonight with the plight of London's rough sleepers,
:00:18. > :00:20.and new figures released by City Hall show that nearly one
:00:21. > :00:23.in 10 people living on the streets are former servicemen.
:00:24. > :00:25.The Mayor has pledged to help them, saying he'll spend
:00:26. > :00:28.an additional ?4 million to reduce homelessness.
:00:29. > :00:41.It's just a week since this former serviceman walked into this hostel.
:00:42. > :00:47.After a year of sleeping rough in London. He asked us to hide his
:00:48. > :00:50.identity to protect his family, he says there are many more like him
:00:51. > :00:55.without the structure of the military, life too much to bear. I
:00:56. > :01:00.could take you to Westminster now and show you ten or 12 that I know
:01:01. > :01:05.of in one tiny area. He thought because he was a former servicemen
:01:06. > :01:08.he would get more help in London but what he found instead was that he
:01:09. > :01:16.was sent to the back of the queue. I went into Westminster county council
:01:17. > :01:25.offices and basically I was told, you can get the form and fill it in
:01:26. > :01:29.but if you are a single man, you're looking at a 20 year wait on the
:01:30. > :01:33.waiting list. In the last eight years the number of people sleeping
:01:34. > :01:39.rough in London has doubled and the proportion of veterans has risen
:01:40. > :01:43.greatly. This hostel alone has 155 people currently staying here, dirty
:01:44. > :01:48.one of those ex-service personnel. The mayor has said ?4.2 million is
:01:49. > :01:55.to be spent directly helping rough sleepers. 2 million will go to help
:01:56. > :01:59.350 regular rough sleepers, 1.9 million will help recent rough
:02:00. > :02:05.sleepers, and ?340,000 will go towards the so-called pan London
:02:06. > :02:09.clearing house. We are bringing together all the different players,
:02:10. > :02:11.whether that is councils, voluntary sector, homeless charities and
:02:12. > :02:16.central government and other agencies, to work out how best to
:02:17. > :02:21.help the different kinds of people who end up rough sleeping. Neil is a
:02:22. > :02:23.former soldier who has also set grass and now he works bringing
:02:24. > :02:29.ex-military of the streets. So what does he think of the plan? It is not
:02:30. > :02:33.going anywhere near far enough, to help eradicate the problem that
:02:34. > :02:39.there is in London. First give people security of homes and there
:02:40. > :02:41.needs to be more social housing. Just yesterday a man sleeping rough
:02:42. > :02:46.behind Trafalgar Square was the start and died. The mayor said in
:02:47. > :02:47.one of the wealthiest cities on earth homelessness is a source of
:02:48. > :02:49.shame. Hundreds of nail bars across London
:02:50. > :02:52.have been visited by immigration officials in an attempt to crack
:02:53. > :02:54.down on illegal workers. Many of the shops will likely face
:02:55. > :02:57.fines as more than a dozen vulnerable people were identified
:02:58. > :03:13.as being at risk of modern slavery. This was part of an operation.
:03:14. > :03:19.Magnified. It is run by the Home Office. It is trying to target
:03:20. > :03:23.businesses suspected of employing and exploiting illegal migrant
:03:24. > :03:28.workers. On this occasion, nail bars targeted as they are seen as a risk
:03:29. > :03:31.industry because many of the workers, it is manual work and often
:03:32. > :03:35.workers do not need to speak English. The officers carrying out
:03:36. > :03:40.these searches have special training to spot those kinds of people being
:03:41. > :03:44.trafficked into the country. And in one south London nail bar Ilan it is
:03:45. > :03:49.suspected one third of the workers were forced into work. Looking
:03:50. > :03:56.across London and the south-east, in total we concede that 161 businesses
:03:57. > :04:01.were visited. Of those, 52 people were arrested on suspicion of
:04:02. > :04:05.immigration offences and 40 businesses given warnings that they
:04:06. > :04:10.could face fines in the future. A little earlier I spoke to Rachel
:04:11. > :04:14.Harbour from the UK modern slavery helpline and she believes that
:04:15. > :04:19.London is a hotspot for human trafficking. Through the helpline we
:04:20. > :04:23.are getting a large number of calls from potential victims or
:04:24. > :04:30.observations of potential modern slavery occurring in London. I'm not
:04:31. > :04:34.surprised by the nail bars either, it has been reported as an industry
:04:35. > :04:39.which uses manual labour and if English is not your first language
:04:40. > :04:45.then victims can still be profitable to a trafficker and exploited. And
:04:46. > :04:49.in total across the country it is thought that 14 victims were
:04:50. > :04:52.suspected of being victims of slavery or human trafficking. The
:04:53. > :04:54.Home Office told us they are now being taken to a safe place and
:04:55. > :04:58.offered support. Families left homeless after a fire
:04:59. > :05:01.ripped through their west London The blaze, in August,
:05:02. > :05:05.was caused by a faulty It was back in August
:05:06. > :05:11.when the DeFreitas family's A London Fire Brigade investigation
:05:12. > :05:15.concluded it was sparked The company behind the tumble dryer,
:05:16. > :05:21.Whirlpool, say they are still Meanwhile, the family are still
:05:22. > :05:27.living in temporary accommodation, It's been months and it's been very
:05:28. > :05:33.frustrating, you know. Your world has been turned
:05:34. > :05:36.upside down, in a sense, Of the 27 households who had to move
:05:37. > :05:43.out, 17 are now back in. Chantelle was home in time
:05:44. > :05:46.for Christmas, but still has some We had to sort of pay
:05:47. > :05:50.to purchase clothes and stuff. We weren't allowed home for six
:05:51. > :05:53.weeks to get anything. But nobody wants to take
:05:54. > :05:55.responsibility for that. It would be nice if we could be
:05:56. > :05:58.acknowledged as a group, that a lot of us have gone
:05:59. > :06:00.through unnecessary Whirlpool says its thoughts
:06:01. > :06:05.are with all those affected. It has identified tumble-dryer
:06:06. > :06:08.models which need a fire risk, but it has
:06:09. > :06:12.told its customers they can continue to use them, as long
:06:13. > :06:16.as they are not left unattended. But the solicitors representing
:06:17. > :06:18.the tenants affected by The concept that people have to stay
:06:19. > :06:25.with their tumble dryers in order for them to be safe whilst in use
:06:26. > :06:29.is pretty ludicrous. I don't think anyone would consider
:06:30. > :06:31.that that's acceptable. You know, the obligation
:06:32. > :06:34.is on manufacturers to get Consumers are buying products
:06:35. > :06:42.and they expect them to be safe. That is an obligation that
:06:43. > :06:45.manufacturers have in law. This is one of the machines that has
:06:46. > :06:48.been on the affected list. The London Fire Brigade has also
:06:49. > :06:51.warned people against using models They said this could have been
:06:52. > :06:56.much worse than people A look at the weather forecast
:06:57. > :07:14.now with Chris Fawkes. We are likely going to see some
:07:15. > :07:21.dense patches of fog forming overnight tonight, the West could be
:07:22. > :07:25.to the north and the West of London. These areas certainly getting that
:07:26. > :07:31.fog and visibility down to about 100 metres in the west of that. Also
:07:32. > :07:36.some frost out of time giving some icy stretches on untreated roads and
:07:37. > :07:40.services. If the fog forms in the capital, some of the taller
:07:41. > :07:46.buildings will stick up into the clearer skies above. If you do start
:07:47. > :07:51.the day with the fog it could remain there all day. But some of us have
:07:52. > :07:53.sunshine all day with temperatures of about 7 degrees. It gets milder
:07:54. > :07:56.though in the run-up to the weekend. I'll be back later at 10.40,
:07:57. > :08:37.but for now from everyone Good evening, the weather is proving
:08:38. > :08:43.hazardous and the fog now becoming more extensive and causing
:08:44. > :08:54.disruption overnight tonight. There is a warning from the Met office and
:08:55. > :08:55.you can stay in touch on the website with all the latest details. For the
:08:56. > :08:56.most part the Northern Isles of Scotland escaping but not a pretty
:08:57. > :08:56.picture further south. This is eight o'clock in the morning, not everyone
:08:57. > :08:57.when he up to that sunshine. The fog will be extensive and freezing with
:08:58. > :08:58.some slippery surfaces around as well. Further north we have frost
:08:59. > :08:59.around in the east of Scotland but milder