15/12/2017 London News

That's it.

Now on BBC One, it's time

for the news where you are.

Good evening.

I'm Chris Rogers.

First tonight - claims London is set

to see the biggest increase

in secondary school pupils

than anywhere else in the country.

That's according to a new report -

which says, we'll need to find

places for 76,000 extra

students by 2020.

That would mean building

73 new schools.

Other options suggested to meet

the growing demand for places

is to use leisure centres

and former council buildings.

Here's our Education

Reporter, Marc Ashdown.

Just imagine schools

in leisure centres,

disused council buildings,

high-rise blocks,

or even off-the-peg

prefabricated classrooms...

Just a few of the possibilities,

as London strains under

a secondary population boom.

TEACHER SPEAKING IN FRENCH.

This report lays bare the challenge

facing every borough to provide

enough school places.

And Barking and Dagenham

is at the epicentre.

In this borough alone

in the next two years,

they are going to have nearly 6000

more secondary aged pupils,

that's a 40% increase.

In effect, they'll need

six brand-new schools.

It requires some creative thinking.

Brussels sprouts?

Yes, you do, why not?!

Here, the headteacher doesn't

always serve dinner,

but they have had to box clever

to cope with rising pupil numbers.

A lot of it is about unstructured

time, break times and lunchtimes.

You know, your playground

is your playground.

If you add another 200,

300 students onto the playground,

you face real difficulties.

You can't cram all your Key Stage 3

kids into a single playground.

So we've had to look

creatively about the space.

Scape Group analyse the Government's

data to identify where

school places are needed.

They're experts in design

and recommend some radical ways

of putting schools at the very heart

of future community planning.

It's really key that we don't work

in silos and that education

buildings can be delivered alongside

health and leisure, retail.

At the same time, thinking about how

we can join up with the industry

to deliver solutions.

Off-site technology is at its best

value for money when we buy in bulk

and we buy en masse,

so being able to procure things

together, to design buildings

together, not only benefits

the master planning,

but also delivers things

faster and often cheaper.

TEACHER SPEAKS IN FRENCH.

That they also want the councils

and the Government speaking the same

language, working together.

Too often good ideas on both sides

are lost in translation.

We need to work with all sorts

of schools and the DfE to make sure

that we've got the schools

being built in the right places.

I mean, some boroughs unfortunately

in the past have been forced to have

new free schools where there hasn't

been the demand, which has

undermined local existing schools

and that's a very bad thing.

The Department for Education says

it's created 235,000 school places

in London since 2011 and has

committed a further half a billion

pounds to help create more,

but it's a huge challenge and every

bit of space now counts.

Mark Ashdown, BBC London News.

For the first time, London's rough

sleepers will be offered emergency

shelter as soon as the temperature

drops below freezing in the evening.

Previously, many shelters only

opened after three consecutive

nights of sub-zero temperatures.

It comes as the Mayor of London

forms a new alliance with homeless

charities, as Ayshea Buksh explains.

As temperatures fall,

sleeping on the streets

in London gets harder.

In the past, local authorities

would open up emergency

shelters after three nights

of sub-zero temperatures.

Hello, nice to meet you.

Now, Mayor Sadiq Khan has said help

for the capital's 8000 or so rough

sleepers should come quicker,

and he's got extra money

from the Government to help all 33

boroughs take action.

There are complex reasons

why people sleep rough.

They could have mental health

issues, they could have problems

with welfare benefits,

there could be family breakdown.

The shortage of affordable housing

in London is one of the big causes.

Often it could be

because their tenancy ends

with a private landlord.

I'm determined to tackle this issue.

I was pleased last year,

for the first time in eight years,

we didn't see an increase

in the numbers of people

sleeping rough, that's good.

We now need to reduce it.

Jeremy started sleeping rough

after a family bereavement.

He now lives at St Mungo's hostel

in Hackney, but was originally

brought into an emergency shelter

during a cold snap two years ago.

I remember I was sleeping

underneath the bridge,

it was really cold,

it was about 10:30 at night

and these two people from Thames

gave me an opportunity,

and said, would you like to come

and take a second night out?

Obviously, in hindsight,

I wasn't expecting anything

too wonderful or luxury,

that's ridiculous for people

to think like that, but again,

it was just somewhere to be.

It was warm and that

was all I wanted.

But tackling rough sleeping

and homelessness in a city

with a high cost of living

and a housing crisis is something

charities will be doing well

beyond the Christmas period.

I get quite frustrated when there's

a focus only in the cold months.

As far as I'm concerned,

it's an urgent issue all the time.

The average age at death for someone

who is sleeping rough,

for a man it's 47 -

that's my age.

And I do work with people and have

worked with people that have

unfortunately died on the streets.

While homeless charities such

as St Mungo's work all year round,

Jeremy says he is now more positive

about his future.

My hope for the future would be

to get a home, a nice,

warm home to stay in,

to go to university,

to study accountancy and finance,

and even further along,

I would actually like to work

within this sector in the future.

This emergency response

could be activated soon,

but tackling rough sleeping

is a more long-term issue.

Ayshea Buksh, BBC London News.

The capital's 24-hour train

service launches tonight

on the Overground line.

It'll run between Dalston Junction

and New Cross Gate.

It's the latest addition

to the existing night Tube and it's

hoped the night time economy

will benefit - as well as partygoers

wanting to get home from Christmas

parties this weekend.

That's it for now from me,

but lets find out what the weather's

up to with Tomasz Schafernaker.

It is certainly nippy out there

tonight, we got up to

It is certainly nippy out there

tonight, we got up to around 6

degrees today, like yesterday, it

will be another chilly day tomorrow

and from Sunday it looks like things

are going to be warming up across

the UK. A frosty start first thing

on Saturday, the skies clearing,

outside of town in rural areas it

could be as low as minus four

degrees and even in the centre of

London by the river bank it will be

around freezing all below. Chilly

start on Saturday, widespread frost

around, and then we have basically

got a beautiful first half of the

day with sparkling sunshine, and

then the clouds will increase. I

suspect it will stay dry, there are

a few showers lurking around

tomorrow but they should not reach

us.

Sunday is certainly the much better

day. Here is the outlook, those

temperatures rising to maybe nine or

10 degrees but if you want the

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