28/12/2016 London News


28/12/2016

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Good evening and welcome to BBC London News.

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We start tonight with the plight of London's rough sleepers,

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and new figures released by City Hall show that nearly one

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in 10 people living on the streets are former servicemen.

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The Mayor has pledged to help them, saying he'll spend

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an additional ?4 million to reduce homelessness.

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It's just a week since this former serviceman walked into this hostel.

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After a year of sleeping rough in London. He asked us to hide his

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identity to protect his family, he says there are many more like him

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without the structure of the military, life too much to bear. I

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could take you to Westminster now and show you ten or 12 that I know

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of in one tiny area. He thought because he was a former servicemen

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he would get more help in London but what he found instead was that he

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was sent to the back of the queue. I went into Westminster county council

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offices and basically I was told, you can get the form and fill it in

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but if you are a single man, you're looking at a 20 year wait on the

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waiting list. In the last eight years the number of people sleeping

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rough in London has doubled and the proportion of veterans has risen

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greatly. This hostel alone has 155 people currently staying here, dirty

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one of those ex-service personnel. The mayor has said ?4.2 million is

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to be spent directly helping rough sleepers. 2 million will go to help

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350 regular rough sleepers, 1.9 million will help recent rough

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sleepers, and ?340,000 will go towards the so-called pan London

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clearing house. We are bringing together all the different players,

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whether that is councils, voluntary sector, homeless charities and

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central government and other agencies, to work out how best to

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help the different kinds of people who end up rough sleeping. Neil is a

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former soldier who has also set grass and now he works bringing

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ex-military of the streets. So what does he think of the plan? It is not

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going anywhere near far enough, to help eradicate the problem that

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there is in London. First give people security of homes and there

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needs to be more social housing. Just yesterday a man sleeping rough

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behind Trafalgar Square was the start and died. The mayor said in

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one of the wealthiest cities on earth homelessness is a source of

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shame. Hundreds of nail bars across London

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have been visited by immigration officials in an attempt to crack

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down on illegal workers. Many of the shops will likely face

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fines as more than a dozen vulnerable people were identified

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as being at risk of modern slavery. This was part of an operation.

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Magnified. It is run by the Home Office. It is trying to target

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businesses suspected of employing and exploiting illegal migrant

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workers. On this occasion, nail bars targeted as they are seen as a risk

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industry because many of the workers, it is manual work and often

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workers do not need to speak English. The officers carrying out

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these searches have special training to spot those kinds of people being

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trafficked into the country. And in one south London nail bar Ilan it is

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suspected one third of the workers were forced into work. Looking

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across London and the south-east, in total we concede that 161 businesses

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were visited. Of those, 52 people were arrested on suspicion of

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immigration offences and 40 businesses given warnings that they

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could face fines in the future. A little earlier I spoke to Rachel

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Harbour from the UK modern slavery helpline and she believes that

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London is a hotspot for human trafficking. Through the helpline we

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are getting a large number of calls from potential victims or

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observations of potential modern slavery occurring in London. I'm not

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surprised by the nail bars either, it has been reported as an industry

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which uses manual labour and if English is not your first language

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then victims can still be profitable to a trafficker and exploited. And

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in total across the country it is thought that 14 victims were

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suspected of being victims of slavery or human trafficking. The

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Home Office told us they are now being taken to a safe place and

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offered support. Families left homeless after a fire

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ripped through their west London The blaze, in August,

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was caused by a faulty It was back in August

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when the DeFreitas family's A London Fire Brigade investigation

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concluded it was sparked The company behind the tumble dryer,

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Whirlpool, say they are still Meanwhile, the family are still

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living in temporary accommodation, It's been months and it's been very

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frustrating, you know. Your world has been turned

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upside down, in a sense, Of the 27 households who had to move

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out, 17 are now back in. Chantelle was home in time

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for Christmas, but still has some We had to sort of pay

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to purchase clothes and stuff. We weren't allowed home for six

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weeks to get anything. But nobody wants to take

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responsibility for that. It would be nice if we could be

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acknowledged as a group, that a lot of us have gone

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through unnecessary Whirlpool says its thoughts

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are with all those affected. It has identified tumble-dryer

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models which need a fire risk, but it has

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told its customers they can continue to use them, as long

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as they are not left unattended. But the solicitors representing

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the tenants affected by The concept that people have to stay

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with their tumble dryers in order for them to be safe whilst in use

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is pretty ludicrous. I don't think anyone would consider

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that that's acceptable. You know, the obligation

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is on manufacturers to get Consumers are buying products

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and they expect them to be safe. That is an obligation that

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manufacturers have in law. This is one of the machines that has

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been on the affected list. The London Fire Brigade has also

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warned people against using models They said this could have been

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much worse than people A look at the weather forecast

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now with Chris Fawkes. We are likely going to see some

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dense patches of fog forming overnight tonight, the West could be

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to the north and the West of London. These areas certainly getting that

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fog and visibility down to about 100 metres in the west of that. Also

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some frost out of time giving some icy stretches on untreated roads and

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services. If the fog forms in the capital, some of the taller

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buildings will stick up into the clearer skies above. If you do start

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the day with the fog it could remain there all day. But some of us have

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sunshine all day with temperatures of about 7 degrees. It gets milder

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though in the run-up to the weekend. I'll be back later at 10.40,

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but for now from everyone Good evening, the weather is proving

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hazardous and the fog now becoming more extensive and causing

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disruption overnight tonight. There is a warning from the Met office and

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you can stay in touch on the website with all the latest details. For the

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most part the Northern Isles of Scotland escaping but not a pretty

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picture further south. This is eight o'clock in the morning, not everyone

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when he up to that sunshine. The fog will be extensive and freezing with

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some slippery surfaces around as well. Further north we have frost

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around in the east of Scotland but milder

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