London

• Ed Miliband supports GMB call for £8.55 living wage in London
  GMB, the union for public sector workers, today launched a campaign to win a living wage of £7.45ph (£8.55ph in London) for 280,000 low paid workers in councils across England and Wales. In this GMB has secured the support of Ed Miliband Labour leader and members of the Labour front bench for higher pay for [...]
• London Underground on hunt for musical talent
  London Underground is calling on talented performers to take centre stage at Tube stations.  Musicians wishing to apply for auditions to become a licensed busker must contact London Underground by 1 February by emailing busking@tube.tfl.gov.uk. Much sought after busking licenses will be up for grabs which will allow musicians to play to the four million [...]
• Unregistered gas fitter fined for dangerous defects
  An unregistered gas fitter from Morden has been fined for endangering a Tooting family after he illegally and unsafely fitted a new boiler at their home. Mr Mussrat Ahamed was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as a result of installing unsafe gas fittings in a family’s rented property on Graveney Road, Tooting, [...]
• Underground agency staff to be balloted for strike action over termination of contract
  <p><img width="300" height="200" src="http://www.now-london.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/rmt-ballot-to-secure-jobs-300x200.jpg" class="attachment-medium wp-post-image" alt="rmt-ballot-to-secure-jobs.jpg" /></p>Tube Union RMT said today that it is to ballot all staff working on London Underground’s “Trainpeople” agency contract for strike action over the termination of a deal which they say will dump dozens of staff on the dole and which make a mockery of regulations which were supposed to protect the employment rights of [...]
• 12 Fire Stations, 18 Fire Engines and 400 Fire-Fighters to be cut in London
  <p><img width="300" height="199" src="http://www.now-london.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/fireengine-300x199.jpg" class="attachment-medium wp-post-image" alt="fireengine.jpg" /></p>Today it was announced that Boris Johnson will close 12 fire stations across London. The list of closures was revealed by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA). The stations are spread across London and include Belsize in Camden, Bow in Tower Hamlets and Westminster. The London Fire Brigade’s budget has been cut by [...]
• Londoners cut off from police by station closures
  The full impact of Boris Johnson’s police station closures is made clear in a new map produced by Labour’s London Assembly Police & Crime Spokesperson, Joanne McCartney AM. The map clearly shows that multiple areas of London will be left with no 24hr police station or front counter to report serious crimes to. This follows [...]
• Mayor’s plan confirms fewer local police in London
  <p><img width="300" height="241" src="http://www.now-london.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/joanne-mccartney-300x241.png" class="attachment-medium wp-post-image" alt="joanne-mccartney.png" /></p>Yesterday (9th Jan 2013) the Mayor of London published his draft Police and Crime Plan for London. In it the Mayor claims that he will increase the number of police officers based in each borough (p10-11 of attached report). However, new analysis carried out by Labour’s London Assembly Police & Crime Spokesperson, Joanne McCartney shows [...]
• Coalition’s policies hammering hard-working families, says Usdaw
  The Coalition’s Benefits Uprating Bill to be implemented today (January 8th) will cost families with two children more than £1,000 in the next three years, says shopworkers’ union Usdaw. The 1% cap on increases to tax credits and child benefit at a time when inflation is predicted to be between at least 2-3% will make [...]
• Coalition’s review threatens further increase in pension age
  People in the UK could have to work until they are 70 and beyond before receiving a state pension, the Public and Commercial Services union warns as the government publishes its ‘mid-term review’. The document published yesterday says: "We will put in place a new mechanism to ensure that the state pension age reflects future [...]
• Firm fined after residents are poisoned by carbon monoxide
  One of the UK’s largest property service organisations has been ordered to pay more than £300,000 in fines, costs and compensation after seven people were hospitalised when carbon monoxide (CO) fumes escaped into their homes. Apollo Property Services Group Limited, now part of Keepmoat Group, was yesterday (17 December) sentenced in relation to the incident [...]