22/11/2017 London News

largely dry and bright across

England and Wales.

That's all from the BBC News at Six,

so it's goodbye from me,

Coming up on BBC London News:

The Chancellor promises

£28 million to the council hit

by the Grenfell tragedy.

If any local authority cannot access

funding to pay for essential fire

safety work, they should contact us

immediately.

Councils tonight tell us they don't

believe the promises because they've

already asked for money

and were told no.

We get reaction to today's

budget, including:

Were Londoners' private details

included in a huge data breach

of the minicab-hailing firm Uber?

Transport bosses are

trying to find out.

Could this be a potential

breakthrough in the resistance

to antibiotics - thanks to London

scientists and cattle?

A very warm welcome

to the programme.

Less than 24 hours after we revealed

the huge bill facing London councils

to improve fire safety for tenants,

the Chancellor today announced

£28 million for the authority hit

by the Grenfell tragedy.

He also promised there would be

money for others to carry out

"essential safety work".

Some of them told us tonight -

they don't believe the government's

latest promise because they have

asked for financial help

and were turned down.

Our political correspondent

Karl Mercer reports.

They're fitting sprinklers

in all their flats in Croydon,

and starting to put new fire doors

in some of the estates

in Tower Hamlets.

Since the Grenfell fire,

London's councils have started

spending more on safety

in their tower blocks,

hoping the government

would fund some of the work.

Today the council most affected

by the fire was told it

would get more money.

Today, I can announce we will

provide Kensington and Chelsea

Council with a further £28 million

for mental health counselling

services, regeneration support for

the surrounding areas, and to

provide a new community space for

local residents.

I spent weeks

speaking to ministers, and I'm

absolutely delighted that they've

agreed to give us £28 million today.

It depends how it will be used. And

who is going to be in charge of

using it.

It will help people to

come together and to meet each other

and deal with the problem of what

around and stay together.

What they

should have done, they should have

spent money on sprinklers.

The Chancellor also promised

help to other councils

if they couldn't afford essential

fire safety work.

If any local council cannot access

funding to paper essential fire

safety work, they should us

immediately. -- contact us

immediately.

The London Fire Brigade

says it thinks things

like sprinklers are essential.

It is worth doing. It is not

optional but something that must

happen, that must be in place for

the future to protect people.

But as BBC London revealed

yesterday, 15 councils

in the capital have asked for money

to the tune of nearly £400 million.

None has so far received any.

So what do those in Croydon

and Tower Hamlets make

of the Chancellor's words today?

Unfortunate

because the laws that would is from

the Government and there is no sign

of that.

The Government said it

would not allow what it called

natural constraints to get in the

way of any essential flies in the

way of any essential for the works.

Let's get more on this

from our political editor,

Tim Donovan, who's in Westminster.

If this is the Government has been

trying to chart on this one, were

clearly what is important is the

definition of what essential works

are, and the actual offer the

Government is making. They talk

about the financial flexibility that

they might be able to help with. The

Government appeared to say that they

haven't changed their position. But

the Chancellor was saying today was

absolutely what Sajid Javid has been

saying up to now. I pointed that out

and put it to him in an interview

this afternoon, a point that

councils were themselves surprised

that they were being asked to apply

the money went so far they've had so

little butt. -- little luck.

Well, actually they shouldn't be

surprised, because what

the Chancellor's said today,

he's recommitted what I've already

said on behalf of the government.

There shouldn't be a single local

authority in the country,

whether it's London or anywhere

else, where if there is essential

fire safety work they need to do,

and they haven't got the financial

resource themselves,

we've said very clearly they should

approach us and we will work

with them and make sure

they have the financial

support that they need.

But these councils are saying

they haven't got the money

themselves, they want

you to be doing it.

Why aren't you paying for it?

And that's why where any

council has approached us,

including London councils,

and said they can't afford it

themselves, we've said talk to us

about what flexibilities you need,

the kind of support that we can

provide to make sure

the funding is there.

That is vital, because we will make

sure there won't be a single local

authority in the country

that is unable to do its work,

because we will support it in making

sure that those fire safety measures

are all met.

But London councils are saying

they've got nearly £400

million worth of work

to do, safety remediation.

Why aren't you going to give

them any of that money?

We are working with

a number of them.

They've asked us

for different things.

For example, some have

approached us and said we've

actually got the money,

but it's stuck in what's called

a general reserve account and aren't

in our so-called housing account.

It's the way they account

for their different needs.

And so can we have a one-off

approval from the government

to transfer funds so we can actually

apply it to our housing needs.

And where they've shown us that's

the case, we've said yes.

So that's one way

we can support them.

We are going through it council

by council, because councils'

needs would be different,

but we want to make sure they can

all do the work that is necessary.

That was the Communities Secretary

speaking to our political editor,

Tim Donovan.

More from him and what

the Budget means for London

later in the programme.

We'll look at housing,

get business reaction

and hear from the Mayor.

Next, it's a global issue -

the increasing use of antibiotics.

So much so it's estimated

that by 2050, 10 million

people a year will die

because of a resistance

to antibiotics.

However, despite that warning,

we've learnt that 19% of Londoners

are still going to A&E to get these

drugs if their doctor

won't prescribe them.

Well, researchers at the University

of London believe they've

made a breakthough.

They've been testing

a drink that was originally

developed for cattle.

Helen Mulroy reports.

Angela Yates from south London knows

first-hand how serious it can be

when antibiotics don't work.

I started getting C diff a year ago,

because my immune system

was very, very low.

For 20 weeks of that

year, in and out.

I said to the doctor, I can't do

this, not for another year.

I would rather be dead.

The inefficacy of antibiotics

is an all-too-common occurrence,

which we are being warned

could get worse.

# When you really need us

we could stop working for you...#

With scientists around the globe

looking for alternatives,

one potential option may have been

discovered in a very unlikely

place in Surrey.

I was a farmer at the time,

and I was feeding concentrate

pellets to my animals.

I knew that it was laced

with antibiotics, and I thought

there needs to be a better way

of doing this.

Former farmer Barry Smith

stumbled across Symprove,

a probiotic drink created

from fermented barley,

when he tried to improve

the health of his cattle.

More than a decade later,

it's been developed into a food

supplement for humans.

Probiotics may be a term you're

familiar with from your own fridge.

But the key to their success

is ultimately whether they can

survive the journey

through the hostile environment

that is our bodies, and make it

to our digestive system alive.

And that's something Symprove has

proven to be good at.

If you've got an infection

and you take Symprove,

the testing showed your pathogen

numbers would go down

and all of your good

bacteria would go up.

And many in the medical industry

are encouraged by the test results.

It's important for us to develop

new ways of working to try

and prevent antimicrobial

resistance, and definitely

using natural products like bacteria

which promote health,

it's a great first step

to understanding a new way

of treating disease.

For Angela, it's

been a game changer.

It's absolutely changed my life.

I feel better now than before I even

took that, before I even became ill.

With her husband Ian,

she's looking forward to making

plans for the future.

Look, that's a cheap cruise.

That's a very cheap cruise.

That's the one you should go on!

Helen Mulroy, BBC London News.

The Met Police is investigating

the Hollywood star Kevin Spacey

over a second allegation

of sexual assault.

The date of the allegation

is believed to be back in 2005,

and took place in Lambeth,

the location of the Old Vic theatre

where Spacey was Artistic Director.

A teenager who was stabbed

in Northolt on Saturday

by suspects who fled the scene

on mopeds has died.

The 18-year-old was attacked

by up to four people,

in what police described

as a "pre-planned" attack.

It happened on Newnham Close.

Detectives are appealing

for information.

Transport for London says

it's trying to find out

from the minicab-hailing firm Uber

if drivers and customers here have

been affected by a huge data breach.

Uber says it has 40,000 cars

in London and is currently appealing

a decision to suspend its licence.

Our technology correspondent

Rory Cellan-Jones reports.

For any company, a data breach

exposing the personal information

57 million users and drivers

would be bad enough.

It was what Uber did

next that really shaped

It was what Uber did

--next that really shocked

regulators and customers -

paying off the hackers and keeping

it all quiet for more than a year.

It happened when Uber was run

by its founder, Travis Kalanick,

who stepped down earlier this year

amid other controversies

about the company's behaviour.

The new boss apologised in a blog

post, saying:

Customers are clearly

very concerned that their data

is not being protected sufficiently.

There's only so much

you can do as a consumer.

We need to hold the

companies accountable.

We know that this very serious

security failure affected

people around the world.

What we don't know is how many

British Uber users so that data

is put at risk by this breach.

Already, our data protection

regulator, the information

Commissioner, has issued an angry

statement warning that

concealing a data breach can

lead to bigger fines.

Now, this troubled company has

to try to regain the trust

of regulators and customers.

You start with a mea culpa -

OK, our culture doesn't work -

and a genuine and sincere

effort to reset.

Can they do it?

Highly unlikely.

Actually, if I'm honest.

But it is possible.

In London, as in many cities,

Uber has always been controversial

and is currently fighting a ban.

This new evidence of behaviour

its own boss admits was inexcusable

won't make that battle any easier.

Still to come out more than a

century, and and was in London.

Returning now to the Budget,

and reviving the home owning

dream was a key theme.

For first time buyers in London -

the initial £300,000 cost

of a £500,000 purchase will be

exempt from stamp duty.

How will that, and other

measures announced affect

the capital's housing crisis?

Here's Alex Bushill.

Even though it seems every day

a new block of flats like this one

crops up on the London skyline,

the

government has now for some time

been talking about how the housing

market, particularly

in London, has been broken.

Today the Chancellor set out

in his Budget various

measures at every stage of

the construction process to try and

solve that problem.

From finding sites

and granting planning

permission, all the way

through to flats

themselves being put on the

open market up for sale.

So first up in the Budget

was this revelation,

that 270,000 sites in London have

planning permission but remain

undeveloped.

Sites like this one in Lewisham.

Today the government announced

a review and threatened to

use compulsory purchasing

orders to free up land.

We'll hold out to try and get best

maximise their profits,

but at the same time we've got

hundreds of families who are

homeless and need homes today.

The Chancellor also

promised £44 billion

to be spent by government nationally

to kick-start more house-building.

Paul Hackett represents the last

housing associations in the country.

One in ten Londoners live

in homes built by them.

He questioned how much

of this money was new.

£15.3 billion we

understand is new money.

Of course that will go a long way

towards helping us build more homes.

But 300,000 homes is an ambitious

number, will the £15.3 billion extra

help us to get to that number?

It will go a long way, but will it

build all the homes that are needed?

Possibly not.

Then there was the stamp duty

giveaway for first-time

buyers like Alice.

The Chancellor today promising

a £5,000 saving on properties of up

to £500,000 in London.

I think the fact that you'd have

to find that money in cash,

effectively, means that it will make

quite a substantial difference.

And I think that it will be

good for us to think

that we might not have

to pay that, actually.

Notable by its absence are any

specific measures for those renting.

A point not lost on single mum

Sabir, on her way to pick up

her sons from school.

Nowadays it is unrealistic,

unaffordable.

It's not fair to people

who want to start living

on their own and have independence.

It's just really unrealistic.

Even if you're renting?

Yes.

More if you're renting.

In short, no one believes

this Budget will solve

our housing crisis.

But for those who benefit directly,

it is a welcome boost nonetheless.

Alex Bushill, BBC London News.

So housing - a key part

of today's budget.

Also keenly watching announcements

today were London businesses who've

been calling for stability amidst

the uncertainty surrounding Brexit.

Let's get reaction -

Katharine Carpenter

is with some tech entrepreneurs

in West London this evening.

Back yes, this is a hub for small

businesses, the sort of companies

the Government wants to help drive

growth. Have they heard enough

today? Let's speak to Harry and

Ruben. Was never enough in this

budget first book fledgling

start-ups?

We like the focused on

artificial intelligence, but the

particular investor tax relief

scheme they focused on could have

been moved out slightly earlier.

What struck you?

One thing that

stood out for me was the tax-free

dividends allowance going down. I

think the effects of that will be

felt amongst company directors and

entrepreneurs that already don't get

paid much for the amount of work

they put in.

Thank you. Ralph is a

structural engineer. We heard there

would be more training for people to

get drops in construction, is that

helpful?

That could be helpful if

it's done in a meaningful way. --

jobs in construction. It's more

important for the clients, they are

seeing a lot of projects not get off

the ground because of the high rates

of stamp duty on high-value

properties that killed a lot of the

market. Also getting stuck in

planning as planning departments

struggled to deal with complex

applications.

A former government

adviser and entrepreneur. Brexit is

a big deal for small companies, have

you heard enough to reassure them?

I

think a lot of companies are

breathing a sigh of relief because

there was a worried the government

would make some changes to VAT

threshold that would have added to

the administrative burden. As for

Brexit, no one quite knows how much

turbulence is going to because to.

It could be many months before we

know if this Budget has done enough

to help small businesses through the

times ahead.

Thank you. As for the

city, City UK said they were broadly

pleased, they wanted stability,

that's what they got. They called

this the right Budget for the right

time.

The thoughts of some

London businesses there.

Let's go back to our political

editor, Tim Donovan.

Tim, are there many issues

where London did not

get what was expected?

It's fair to say that the Mayor of

London had been doing a lot of

lobbying and asking for things up to

the Budget, and fair to say city

will think that there was not nearly

enough being done to tackle the poor

air quality in the capital. There is

little progress signalled by the

briefest of mentions by the

Chancellor of Crossrail two. And

there was no mention of policing, no

talk of any extra money for policing

in the capital. In this year when

the capital has faced such a serious

challenge in terms of

counterterrorism, it is fair to say

that the mayor wasn't that

impressed.

I think this is probably the most

anti-London Budget in a generation.

Housing, opportunity missed.

Police, not even mentioned

by the government.

Air quality is getting

worse across the country,

getting worse in London,

without the government's help.

Infrastructure, we're doing

what we can in London,

we need the government's

help as well.

On housing though, given councils

more borrowing powers,

you've already been given

£700 million a year over the next

few years to build houses.

It's up to you to go out

and do it now, isn't it?

Well, hold on a sec.

In 2009-10, the last year

of the last Labour government,

the amount of money spent in London

on affordable homes

was double what it is now.

We're doing our bit,

we've already given 50,000 homes

permission with housing associations

as part of the deal going forward.

In terms of air quality,

you wanted a diesel scrappage scheme

to compensate people.

A lot of money put in there.

He hasn't done that, but he has

created a new clean air fund.

You'll be able to apply for that.

I announced as the Mayor

£875 million during five years

to help the issue of poor quality

air in London.

He has announced today,

the government, the national

government, a fund of £220 million,

even less than they briefed last

week to the media when they said it

would be £250 million.

For the entire country.

The idea that this will lead

to behavioural change,

the idea this will help businesses

move away from diesel,

or families, businesses

or charities, the idea this

will make any difference

to the particulate matter,

the pollutants that cause the poor

quality air in London, it won't do.

And so this is another example

of the government not

understanding the challenges

or what the solutions are.

Sadiq Khan wouldn't be drawn into

any kind of row with other regions

but one thing was noticeable. This

was a Budget where the talk of

infrastructure and extra money and

tram routes and transport links were

in the West Midlands, the North,

Tyne and we are, clearly where the

Chancellor wanted to focus his big

infrastructure announcements today,

not London.

Many thanks for your

assessments in Westminster.

It's a collection spanning

more than a century,

charting the history of Muslims

here in London.

The specially created archive

of around 200,000 documents

and personal items was unveiled

today at the East London Mosque.

It also reveals how its home

in Whitechapel has evolved.

Tolu Adeoye has the story.

So you can see here that he's

travelled from Calcutta to London,

from London to Glasgow...

Salman's grandad served

in the Merchant Navy

during World War I.

He's one of those who has

contributed to what is thought to be

the UK's first-ever Muslim archive.

A collection like this is very rare,

that's because a lot

of the Lascars, the sailors

from the South East Asian

subcontinent, would have gone back

home to their home countries

and these types of records

and documents would have been lost.

It's one of more than 200,000

documents and items which will be

stored in a strongroom,

available for the public

to view at the East London

Mosque in Whitechapel.

Over here I spotted

a London Underground sign.

What's this document about?

Well, this is from 1941,

when there was a mosque

on Commercial Road.

There was a need to have a bus stop

and for the trams to stop

across there for people

to come and pray.

This is an application.

I really like this one.

During the 70s, there

was a lot of anti-racist

trouble in the East End,

and there was solidarity from

the Jewish community saying we stand

by you in this difficult time.

The archive charts the growth

of the East London Mosque,

from the converted houses serving

400 worshippers in the 40s

to the mosque today,

where thousands come to pray.

For Salman, today is

a proud moment, connecting

the past with the present.

For me it means there is a really

palpable connection between me

being here and born here,

and the connection between my

heritage and roots to Britain.

Tolu Adeoye, BBC London News.

A Paralympian from Essex has been

awarded compensation after she say

she was forced a wet herself on a

train because the disabled loo

wasn't working. She says although

she welcomes the settlement there is

a long way to go before public

transport will be truly accessible.

It gets extremely difficult...

When

I met Anne near her home near Harlow

she was keen to show me how

difficult life could be in a

wheelchair.

Because I was a bit

stronger, I could do this. It looked

easy but, actually, it puts a lot of

pressure on the back.

The wheelchair

racer was completely robbed of her

dignity after being left to wet

herself on a cross-country train

because there wasn't an accessible

toilet.

I felt humiliated. I was

just disappointed that... I was

disappointed in myself for being

disabled. If I had the ability to

crawl or to walk I would have walked

and used any other toilet. But

remember, being in a wheelchair,

they put you in an accessible

carriage that is supposed to have an

accessible toilet.

Anne

Wafula-Strike has competed all over

the world as a Paralympic athlete,

and has an MBE for services to

disability sport.

I got this in

America...

She became disabled after

contracting polio when she was two

years old.

I've travelled the world.

To be honest, sometimes you go to

certain countries and you look at

their facilities and you are like,

there's room for improvement. We are

Great Britain, we are supposed to be

leading the world.

Cross-country

trains has apologised and made a

confidential payment to Anne but she

say she wants to see change.

Even

though I've had a settlement it's

not important to me. The vital thing

is when things like this don't

happen to any other person. It would

be wrong if I celebrated because it

could still happen tomorrow.

Anne is

talking to the government and

helping draw up an action plan so no

other disabled passenger has to

suffer like she did. Louisa Preston,

BBC London News.

Now, as twilight falls,

the landscape lights up at one

of the most famous botanical gardens

in the country.

Now in its fifth year,

Kew Gardens' annual Christmas trail

of lights opens tonight,

boasting over a million

twinkling lights.

They say it's bigger and brighter

than it's ever been before.

Time for a check on the weather -

and Darren Bett has joined us.

Time for a check on the weather -

and Darren Bett has joined us.

It doesn't really feel much like

Christmas weather at the moment. It

was pretty mild out there and windy

today as well. As we head into

tomorrow we are going to find

temperatures will be lower. It will

feel cooler. Not quite as windy as

it's been today. That picture you

can see that, sent by one of our

regulars Barbara in Bromley. We had

some blue skies and temperatures

about 15 degrees. The edge taken off

probably by the strength of the

winter. We were very much on the

edge of that cloud. This rain out to

the West is going to be heading our

way overnight. Some rain on the way.

As the night goes on that rain is

intermittent and could be heavy.

Potentially thundery. It will be

accompanied by squally, noisy winds.

Pretty mild because of the wind and

rain on the way. Early rain to clear

away, probably around the rush-hour.

Already the winds will have dropped

off by the morning. Still a blustery

day but not as windy as today. For

most of the day it will be dry with

some sunshine. More sunshine

perhaps, still decent temperatures.

13 will be fairly typical. That's

the last of the milder weather. More

cloud heading our way or at least

threatening to tomorrow night. It

may bring a bit of rain to the south

of London. It will keep temperatures

up to 5-6d overnight. A lot of

uncertainty about weather rain is

going to be. I think it will have

gone by Friday and we are looking

for brighter skies for a while. The

wind is not as strong by Friday but

temperatures not as high. We are

looking at around 8-9d. As we head

further into Friday and into the

weekend, instead of the southerly

winds will get colder air coming our

way from the north-west. It means

that for most of the time it will be

dry with sunshine around this

weekend. It will feel chilly with a

risk of a passing shower.

Thank you.

Thank you. If you want more detail

on the Budget and how it affects

you, head to the BBC News website.

Thank you for watching and have a

lovely evening. Goodbye.