15/02/2017 London News

Businesses in London, who are reliant on EU workers,

are being told not to worry about Brexit because they claim

workers will stay here after the break-up.

Migration Watch carried out a survey which they say "proves"

migration can be reduced without damaging the economy.

But there are those who warn of our ageing society which needs

more workers from abroad to keep it going.

Alex Bushil has been examining the arguments and the survey.

This is Newham, one of the most diverse places

It's a community that has been shaped by mass immigration.

Well, now a campaign group Migration Watch UK,

says so many people from abroad have come to settle here and elsewhere

in London over the years that any end to mass immigration would have

What we know is that 335,000 more people immigrated to the UK

than left it last year and more than half of those

Migration Watch UK says this could be reduced

by as much as 100,000 without hurting the economy.

They also argue that growing the economy through immigration

Of course if you have more people here the economy's going to grow.

But if you look at GDP per head, that has remained pretty much

We really have to wean ourselves off cheap European,

At this Romanian restaurant up the road they're not for moving.

Irina has lived and worked here for six years.

In case we are going to need visa, we are going to apply for visa.

In case we need work permit, we will apply for work permits.

No, I am not going, I will be here, no matter what.

Alex has just arrived here from Transylvania and that's

TRANSLATION: I came because I want to work,

because I deserve that right, for that opportunity.

Others point to the report's assumption that all those EU

nationals working here will either choose or be allowed to stay

and there is also the problem of an ageing population.

The working ge population may shrink and certainly if migration

reduced substantially it could shrink significantly.

And that would mean either that people have to work longer,

later and later retirement ages or alternatively,

that the Government would have to start borrowing more

and the public finances would get worse.

So then this is a report about immigration that's contested

and contradicted, but then this is Brexit.

A woman in East London has been left fighting for her life tonight

after being stabbed in an apparently "motiveless attack" just

It happened near Castle Green Park, where the woman had

Even the police were taken aback by the ferocity of this

It happened on Monday evening at about 9.30pm and the

It happened on Monday evening at about 9.30pm and the victim,

a 29-year-old woman, got off a bus on the A 13

just across this park, evidently walked across and then

a few minutes later was found slumped just behind me

here with serious severe multiple stab injuries.

She had suffered injuries to her body and her head.

She was taken to hospital where she remains in a critical condition

This is a really brutal and horrific stabbing of a young lady coming home

from work on Monday night at about 9.40pm in this park.

The local Borough of Barking and Dagenham have increased

As you can see, a lot of police are here at the moment.

A lot of activity is ongoing to do with this investigation.

I would also say is thankfully these attacks are very, very rare.

Scenes of crime officers have been here all day

They've had the police dogs out, as well.

They are appealing for people living around here to jog their memories,

if they can remember anything from Monday evening.

They believe the community will hold the key to

Information on the suspect, we don't even know if it's a man

or a woman, but it was a brutal ferocious attempt that's left

The Government's Help to Buy Loan Scheme -

aimed at getting more people onto the housing ladder -

Although 100,000 people have been helped across England

since its launch several years ago, there's at least one London borough

where the total number of people helped is just two.

Our political editor, Tim Donovan, has been looking at the numbers.

The Government brought in help-to-buy back in 2013 making

available a loan of 20% to first-time buyers of newly built

It was then last year raised to up to 40% in London.

It cost ?402,000 and they got a loan of ?120,000 to

Originally we started looking at shared ownership but the fact

that we would have paid rent on the percentage of the property

that we didn't own would have meant that in the five years

that the Government help-to-buy loan is interest-free,

I think we would have actually wrapped up about ?20,000 worth

Not so lucky, not yet anyway, is Rachel.

She's 27 and is currently paying ?900 a month rent

She would be interested in help-to-buy but you have to find

Living in London, earning a wage that you can live on and trying

to save and trying to buy a property in London, it's just, yeah,

So I feel if something else was to come into play that would be

great but I am willing to try the help-to-buy loan

Now the BBC has analysed how help-to-buy has worked

Outside of London people made use of it to purchase

nearly 77,000 homes, just under a third

But in London there was a stark difference.

4,483 homes bought, that's just 11% of the total.

The problem for most people in London is that there's a cap

there's a cap of ?600,000, which in London doesn't buy

New-build properties that have been put forward in these schemes have

Even people if qualify for these loans and for this Government

assistance have found it difficult to find properties they can buy.

Well, the Department for Communities and local Government didn't address

the point about the limited impact in London, except saying

that the take-up had doubled since the loan had been

A spokesman said more than 100,000 people had benefitted across the UK

from help-to-buy and it was one of a number of different

After 300 years in the City, long, boozy lunches are now off the menu

It's because the insurance market has put a ban on staff drinking

Lloyd's says drinking accounts for over half of its disciplinaries.

Wednesday lunchtime and the Grapes pub, a popular pint

wanting a drink over lunch but this pub and others could soon see fewer

The boozy lunch was once a staple of City life where deals were done

and contacts made but Lloyd's said times are changing,

gone are the days of the lunchtime pint and it wants to

with other companies that already have similar policies.

The corporation's 800 employees have been banned

from drinking between 9 and 5, brokers or underwriters from other

firms based at the insurance market are unaffected.

In a memo to staff Lloyd's said more than half of grievance

and disciplinary cases over the last couple of years were

The culture now is certainly different to what it was then.

One City commentator told me the ban was symptomatic of a wider shift

You have to treat your employees like adults.

I think the days of nannying people, it's like being back at school.

I think most responsible employees will drink responsibly if they feel

Ultimately, when you are in the City sometimes you will have to go out

with a client and potentially have a drink at lunchtime.

You know what it's like when your mates put pressure

It doesn't take much of that for you to go over

the top at lunchtime, for that to affect your performance.

At the end of the day, you are there to do a job.

You are doing a job that's got detail in the financial sector,

clearly Lloyd's have decided that now's the time to say

Drinking at lunchtime has been part of tradition in Lloyd's and the City

I think so long as you are sensible, why not be able to continue it?

Productivity goes down in the afternoons if

So, I am not really a big drinker, I would be happy.

Lloyd's says a ban removes any ambiguity on what is acceptable.

If someone is found to have broken the rule, it will be down

to their manager to decide on the best course

That's it for now from me, but let's find out what the weather's up

Feeling more mild than last week but not a great day.

A price to pay, yes all very February. I it wasn't much better

when the rain arrived. Shared misery any easier to bear, not really? A

weather front piling from the south-west across us all. There was

no escape. Late in the day thankfully a bit of brightness there

in Bromley. A fair amount of cloud overnight. Some of of it sitting low

on the hills. Not too cold a night. Rather grey start to the new day.

Here we go again? Well, not quite. I think we are going to see a bit of

sunshine. The cloud melts away and come the afternoon we are all in

with a shout of seeing a bit of sunshine. Not too much of a breeze.

Dare I say it? Yes, I will, it could almost feel like spring. Friday, a

bit more cloud around. With the absence of the sunshine we might be

back to around about 11 or so. That sort of theme will take us on into

the weekend. Wouldn't promise you two dry days but

the weekend. Wouldn't promise you two dry days but you never know,

here is Nick with the national picture.

Hello. We put that cold weekend well behind us now. Temperatures edging

upwards and our weather watchers are seeing plenty of signs of spring.

Spending more time looking down than looking up at the skies, we see

these early blooms. They are set to continue as we are set to stay mild

for several more