00:00The housing crisis has led to London being exceptionally unaffordable as a place to live.
00:07House prices remain sky high and rent across the city remains unaffordable.
00:14The latest homelessness statistics in London especially make for grim reading.
00:20The number of people classed as living on the streets in London has increased by 38% year on year to 706 from 511 according to the latest combined homelessness and information network statistics.
00:38The total number recorded as sleeping rough in the capital was 4,427 for the three months to March 2025 which was a near 8% increase from 4,118 for the same quarter last year.
00:56Homelessness Minister Rushanara Ali's resignation followed reports in the iPaper that she had given four tenants at a property she owned in East London four months notice to leave last November and then relisted the property with a £700 rent increase within weeks.
01:20Shadow Housing Secretary Sir James Cleverley said her actions were total hypocrisy.
01:27A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said Rushanara Ali fundamentally misunderstood her role.
01:34Her job was to tackle homelessness not to increase it.
01:38The reports also drew strong criticism from renters' rights campaigners given the government's pledge to clamp down on what it sees as unfair rental practices.
01:52Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, described the allegations as shocking and a wake-up call to government on the need to push ahead as quickly as possible
02:07as possible to improve protection for renters.
02:11Tom Darling, the director at the Renters Reform Coalition said it's mind-boggling that we have a homelessness minister who has just evicted four people in order to rake in more rent.
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