Boris Johnson, his political opponents and housing experts across the capital are agreed - at least up to a point - that the coalition government's plans to cap and cut housing benefit will have catastrophic effects on tens of thousands of Londoners and on London itself. Increased rent arrears, evictions, homelessness, overcrowding and an effectively forced removal of poorer people from inner London to the suburbs and beyond have been widely predicted and were listed by the Mayor in his submission of 6 September to the Work and Pensions Committee Inquiry into the impact of the proposed changes.
This week I will be reporting on yet more evidence of the social devastation the coalition will wreak on the capital unless it thinks again. On Tuesday evening in Barking, Boris will be holding a public meeting about his own housing policies. Have they been as successful as he claims? Also on my to-do list: more on the politics of Tower Hamlets and, of course, the result of the Ken-Oona contest to become Labour's challenger in 2012. Life is never dull.
