15/12/2017 London News

That's all from the BBC News at One,

so it's goodbye from me.

Good afternoon and welcome

to BBC London News.

I'm Sonja Jessup.

Over the next two years the number

of secondary school pupils

in the capital is set to grow faster

than anywhere else in the country.

That's according to a new report,

which says here in London,

we'll need to find places for 76,000

extra students by 2020.

That would mean building

73 new schools.

Here's Marc Ashdown.

London is in the grip of a secondary

school population boom.

According to this report,

over the next few years there's

going to be thousands more secondary

pupils across the capital,

from Lambeth and

Lewisham, to Richmond,

and Hackney in the north,

but here in Barking

and Dagenham is the epicentre.

Over the next couple of years

they're going to have nearly 6000

more secondary school pupils,

that's a 40% growth.

In effect they need six brand-new

schools just to keep up.

It requires creative thinking.

A lot of it is about unstructured

time, break times and lunchtimes.

Your playground is your playground.

If you add another 200 or 300

students onto that playground

you face real difficulties.

You can't cram all your key stage

three kids into a single playground.

Local authorities have got

the best understanding

I think of local needs.

There's no way central government

or even a regional school

commissioner can understand

the nuances of the local context,

so I think that's why

local authorities need

to have an enhanced role.

A public sector organisation group

compiled this report

by analysing government data

and they are proposing radical

solutions like opening

schools in coffee shops,

leisure centres or disused council

buildings or even prefab schools.

The Department for Education says

they've already created 235,000

extra school places in London

in the last five years.

They've committed £0.5 billion

to creating even more.

But there's no doubt

London's population growth

continues to be a challenge.

And of course it's not just

new schools that London is short of.

The Mayor's said we need

65,000 homes a year-

and one radical suggestion

is to build them on the roofs

of existing buildings.

Critics argue it will

spoil the city skyline.

Here's Caroline Davis.

We've built on, we've built down,

and you might have thought we've

built up, but not like this.

Now we are building on.

So is this a creative solution

to the housing crisis,

or a blight on your view?

Jovan and his neighbours were fed

up of living in flats

they couldn't afford to do up.

Our insulation was bad.

Also the lift doesn't work,

the lift hasn't been

working for decades.

We had also had a bad electrical

wiring system and we decided

to find out a solution.

And this is the solution.

The tenants bought the freehold

to the block, sold the airspace

above it and used the money to do

up their flats.

It's a large two-bedroom

penthouse...

Now their roof is a £1 million

property and the developers say

it's just the start.

A lot of the buildings in London

are very sustainable.

They can take an additional

floor on them.

London's housing crisis

won't be resolved through

looking for large sites.

This is the ideal solution.

Often if you own the freehold

to the property you own the airspace

above it, but not all buildings

are suitable to take

the weight of a new floor.

You need planning permission

and then there's the neighbours.

The big problem always will be

even if I make some money out

of doing up my house,

my next-door neighbour might well

have a problem with it and think it

impinges on their privacy

and destroys local character.

There will always be reasons

people can find to stop

new development taking place.

But in cases where it works

structurally and it doesn't ruin

local character completely,

I think it's worth looking at.

So it might not be right

for everyone, but Jovan is happy

to put up with building work

and a new neighbour.

We are happy, all the people

in the building, because we have

much better living conditions,

it's much better to save green

belt than chimneys.

Will building on take off?

Watch this space.

Detectives investigating a suspected

fatal hit and run in south London -

in which a woman was run over

by four vehicles -

have released CCTV to try to trace

two of the drivers.

They want to speak to whoever

was behind the wheel

of this white lorry,

and a black car.

It's alleged none of the vehicles

stopped after hitting

the 29-year-old woman

in Tulse Hill on Monday.

From tonight, part of the Overground

through east London will run

a 24-hour service at weekends.

The Night Overground,

on Fridays and Saturdays,

will run between New Cross Gate

and Dalston Junction.

I think it will promote a lot

of activity in in London,

promote a lot of investment.

We spend so much money on Uber,

for my daughter especially,

so we can go straight home now.

It's good for me because it means

I can get home or see friends,

so I'm happy about that.

More people than ever before

will have turned 70 in 2017.

According to the Office

of National Statistics,

there are nearly 800,000 baby

boomers celebrating the milestone.

So what's it like for the generation

who have been through some

of the world's biggest cultural

and social changes?

John Maguire reports from Crawley.

We've gathered a group

of septuagenarians from across

the UK to deliberate,

cogitate and celebrate life at 70.

Here at the Hawth Theatre in Crawley

- a town also born in 1947 -

it's panto season and behind us

is the set for Snow White

and the seven Dwarfs.

So the first question

is about going off to work.

How many of you here

are still working?

Workers over there, please.

People who have retired or not

working, over on that side.

In our group, 28% still work.

This isn't a scientific survey,

of course, but in 2005 the national

figure was less than 5%.

So you've gone back to work?

Yes, because I wanted

to keep my brain going and I wanted

to give back actually all that

I have learnt in 70 years.

Going well?

Love it, love it.

I'm now do things I want to do

rather than things I have to do.

How many of you feel financially

stable as a 70-year-old?

88% were happy with their finances,

better off than younger generations.

My husband and I, when we retired

sold our house, sold our home

at the height of the property boom

and invested the money.

Our generation, people

that did own property,

have done well on it with house

prices, unlike the younger

generation, who are now struggling.

I have to watch my pennies and be

careful what I do and can't go

on expensive holidays.

Some fascinating views,

stories and a real insight I think

into what it feels like to be 70

years old in this day and age,

but there's one thing I've

definitely learned and that is 70

is the new...

ALL:

40!

Let's get the weather now -

here's Elizabeth Rizzini.

Good afternoon. We thought clear

skies for a time last night, so

patchy frost to start this morning.

We are into colder air. There is a

very chilly north-easterly wind

blowing too. We will see some

showers, further showers for money,

through this afternoon, towards

eastern areas. The best of the

brightness will tend to be for

western parts. Top temperatures only

up to five Celsius. It will feel

colder than that with the wind

chill. This evening and overnight

the wind will back off slightly.

There will be some cloud around at

first but that should thin and

break. We'll get clear skies and a

widespread frost to start off the

day tomorrow. Some of our rural

spots in western areas could be down

as low as -2, or minus three

Celsius. A cold start to the

weekend. Tomorrow should see lots of

sunshine through the day and it

should stay dry, with a bit more

cloud working in from the north-west

as we head into the afternoon. Top

temperatures between 3-5 degrees

Celsius. A light breeze, it will

feel pleasant. By Sunday, a few

changes. The wind will pick up again

and there will be some rain as we

head into the late afternoon and

first part of the evening. It

doesn't feel quite so cold. Lots of

cloud around, top temperatures up to

nine degrees Celsius. Again, turning

a bit milder for next week.

That's all we've got time for.

That's all we've got time for.

Asad Ahmad will be here at 6:30pm

with our evening news programme.

Hope you can join him for that.

Bye-bye.