London's population is predicted to rise from its present 7.5 million-plus to nearly 8.9 million by 2031. Many households in the capital are already overcrowded and, as the government hacks back its investment in housing, the future supply of homes - especially genuinely affordable ones - is shrouded in doubt. Who will build them? Who will live in them? How will people on low and middle incomes afford what is available with prices so high and benefit support for working and non-working families alike being reduced?
The huge Earls Court Project, backed by the radical Conservative-run Hammersmith and Fulham Council and encouraged by the Mayor, brings such questions into focus, along with issues about the density of new housing developments, where private investment is focused and the rights of tenants and leaseholders on Council estates earmarked for demolition. I'll be bringing you the latest in that saga, along with with other housing stories, including insights into tackling rough sleeping, arguments for the government re-thinking its benefit reform plans and why securing new sources of housing investment in London seems so difficult.
Hostilities on the mayoral election front continue. Ken Livingstone is taking his grassroots Tell Ken tour to Haringey. Boris has used his Telegraph column - ker-ching! - to urge Europe to stop bailing out Greece, an argument to simultaneously delight the Tory right and project him as a man of international stature. As I write, his bold suggestion has already enjoyed further exposure on the Today programme, in the Guardian and the Uxbridge Gazette. You know, I sometimes think he says such things mostly to draw attention to himself. And guess what? It works.
