London politics

London politics

Development corporations normally exist to take an area of brownfield, untransformed land and turn it into an end state. You take a field and turn it into a new town; you take an old gaswork and turn it into a business park. Here we have got an area which is already developed, and there already is development going through - the new House of Fraser, the new Debenhams buildings, coming on stream soon, Wells House, South Milton triangle underway a development pipeline underway under existing City plan and the existing Westminster planning committee.

As of the start of 2026, London's murder rate had dropped to the lowest it's been in more than a decade, making the capital one of the safest Western cities in the world according to the Mayor. The statistics certainly paint a different picture to the viral videos suggesting London is lawless peddled by the far right on social media.

The footage shows four figures dressed head-to-toe in black, their faces concealed by motorcycle helmets, storming the jeweller's in Haringey, close to Finsbury Park. The group can be seen smashing glass counters with hammers and grabbing jewellery, which they then place into plastic bags. Two employees are shown running to the back of the store as the robbery unfolds.

Given the demanding nature of a uniform officer's role, if he was able to work his shift he was clearly not so impacted by tiredness that he could have failed to realise the need to pay for the baguette.

We're dealing now with thousands of protests every year. We also know that the protest demand on the Met is a chronic abstraction for officers taken out of community policing. Money given to the Met from central Government to cover policing in the capital city was significantly underfunded for the amount of demand that they are currently dealing with.

Officers initially attempted to stop a man on a motorbike after he had been spotted with a false number plate. In bodycam footage released by the Met Police on X, officers are seen chasing down the rider before he crashes into an officer's bike. The suspect then takes off on foot.

In January 2022, Henry Construction was awarded a 40 million contract by the local authority to deliver 105 Passivhaus-standard new homes across these six sites all designed by Bell Phillips and work started on the schemes later that year. The Ealing Council building Nearly 18 months later in June 2023, the builder went into administration, leaving some buildings unfinished, though close to completion. At the time, the council said it was committed to completing all of the homes a position which has since changed.

Lettings boss Ghanshyam Sarup Batra, 63, was director of a company managing four Aparthotels when he drained its bank account, leaving just only 3.48 for creditors. It happened during a four-day period when London-based Dylan Lettings Worldwide Limited had assets transferred to a receiver. By May 2017, a number of mortgage companies had called in debts personally owed by Batra - who is pictured on his Facebook page with Hollywood star John Travolta.

London's long-running pedicab free-for-all is finally being brought to heel, as Transport for London ( TfL) begins rolling out rules designed to tame what many have seen as the West End's last transport wild west. From this winter, there will likely be fewer pedicabs circling theatres and tourist hotspots. Not because demand has vanished, but because regulation has arrived. For the first time, fares will be capped and operators licensed, reshaping a trade that has operated for years with little formal oversight.

If you're taking the Piccadilly line this week, prepare for potential delays, disruptions and even cancellations due to the strikes. Here's everything you need to know. RECOMMENDED: Strikes have been called for the Overground this month. When are the Piccadilly line strikes? The strikes aren't actually on the Piccadilly line, rather at the depot that serves the service. RMT members working at the Northfields Depot in Ealing are on strike from the evening of Sunday February 15 until the morning of Saturday February 21.

The world-famous high street, that has appeared in hit films such as Notting Hill and Paddington, will have wider granite pavements, new lighting and greening after Kensington and Chelsea councillors approved the plans during a meeting on Tuesday night. Other improvements include more dropped kerbs for wheelchairs, more parking bays and replacing concrete anti-terror barriers with sliding bollards. Works are expected to begin in January 2027, according to the council.

The High Court has ruled that a west London council acted unlawfully and failed an orphaned child by leaving him in squalid conditions in order to avoid the financial burden of taking him on as looked after. While the child lived with his sister, who was also a child, the case was bought on behalf of only one of them. As a result of these tenancy succession laws, the child became a trespasser in his own home.

Tourists travel from near and far to visit London.

Finding full time employment in the capital is particularly tough right now. 7.2 per cent of people are unemployed in the capital, a level last seen during the early months of the pandemic. That's up from 5.4 per cent in June 2024, before Labour came into power. Unemployment in London has risen faster than in any other region, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics.

We are having real success tackling the crimes that terrorise communities. But the crimes that tear at the fabric of communities, like shop theft and shop robbery, continue to rise and we must do more. That is why we are putting 13,000 more neighbourhood officers on the beat, and have invested 2 billion more in forces across the country since we took office.

Opponents of a huge new Chinese embassy next to the Tower of London say they will soon begin legal action in an attempt to block the scheme. On Tuesday, the government approved China's proposal to redevelop the former Royal Mint site into a vast 215,300 sq ft (20,000 sq m) UK headquarters, despite opposition from politicians and campaigners. About 200 people live in Royal Mint Court, a complex of flats on the site,

Mark Nygate, the treasurer of the local Royal Mint Court Residents' Association, said people living near the proposed development had concerns about government interference in what is supposed to be an independent process. The group has raised nearly 37,000 out of the 145,000 required to instruct lawyers to seek a judicial review if the decision goes against them. Others, Nygate added, had promised to make further donations if it came to it.

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