Nicky has this morning written to Richard Blakeway, the Mayor’s housing adviser, to explain why he has apparently double counted around 16,000 affordable homes.

Blakeway said this week that “around 54,000 completions” are expected over the “next four years” (2011-15), apparently including 16,000 affordable homes that will already have been counted towards the Mayor’s target of 50,000 homes by 2012.

Nicky wrote, "I am extremely concerned at the way the mayor’s office has apparently double counted this information. At best it is a lazy, yet very important, error. At worst you have blatantly misled Londoners on your housing delivery."

She went on to say that the misuse of statistics, "undermines the challenges we face, and this apparent sleight of hand does nothing to reassure Londoners we are delivering what the city needs."

Commenting today, Nicky Gavron said: "The mayor needs to be beating targets, not cheating them. He’s already broken his election pledge to deliver 50,000 homes by 2011. It now looks like he’s trying to claim credit twice for thousands of extra homes."

The delegation – which included both of Islington’s Older People’s Champions and Cllr Janet Burges, Islington’s Executive Member for Health and Adult Social Care – accompanied Council Leader Catherine West as she gave evidence on Fuel Poverty to Health and Public Services Committee of the London Assembly.

The delegation viewed the Committee’s Meeting and were particularly pleased when Cllr West urged the representatives of EDF Energy and British Gas who were present, to show a “social conscience” when setting their energy bills for the forthcoming year.

After the Committee Meeting the pensioners met with London Assembly Members Nicky Gavron and Murad Qureshi who sit on the Committee, as well as Jennette Arnold who represents Islington on the GLA.

All three Assembly Members signed the Pensioners Forum’s petition which calls on the London Mayor to do more to prevent Londoners from falling into fuel poverty.

Cllr Catherine West said:

“I am on the side of local people who are in danger of falling into fuel poverty.  I am delighted that the Pensioners Forum was able to send a delegation to City Hall to attend the Committee Meeting and show the energy companies first hand the impact their price rises have.

It’s also important that the Conservative Mayor of London does more to help tackle fuel poverty in Islington and throughout London with energy efficiency schemes and improvements on data sharing so we can identify those in fuel poverty. I hope he heeds the words of the Pensioners Forum’s petition.

Unfortunately his Conservative chums in the Government are making the situation worse by cutting the Warm Front scheme, which helps several vulnerable families in Islington manage their energy bills”.

George Durack, Chairman of Islington Pensioners Forum, recorded a message at City Hall, explaining what he decided to bring his campaign to the Mayor’s doorstep.

Plans in the mayor’s budget reveal a cut of 455 officers by the time London hosts the Olympics in 2012, the first substantial cut in numbers in London since power over policing was devolved in 2000. The mayor’s budget lays out the proposed cuts and says: “Over the three years to 2012-13, the number of police officers is forecast to decrease by 455.”

Scotland Yard have also announced a freeze in recruiting new constables, and in part blamed “the current economic position”.

Figures for the Met are available on the MPA website: http://www.mpa.gov.uk/statistics/police-numbers/

The destruction and looting across London that has spread to other cities in England, although notably not Wales or Scotland yet, has received the wholehearted condemnation of politicians of all colours and below we print a sample of their unabridged statements. Alone amongst the politicians, Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party has called for solutions without seeking to apportion blame. Now London applauds this approach, one from which the other leaders could learn much.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, said: “I was watching the TV news in the Canadian town of Calgary last night as I waited to catch a plane, and as the images of a blazing London filled the screen I felt a series of emotions.

I felt a sickening sense of incredulity that this could really be happening in our city. I felt a blinding anger at the callousness and selfishness of the rioters.

Then I felt something else, as I stood in the gaggle of Canadians and others, a feeling I found hard at first to pin down since I had never felt it before in relation to the city I am proud to represent.

I felt ashamed – ashamed at the actions of a small but significant minority of our fellow Londoners, and the damage they are doing to their own economic prospects and the reputation of London around the planet.

In less than 12 months we will welcome the world to a great summer games in the greatest city on earth – and by then we must all hope that we will look back on these events as a bad dream.

It can be done. But it will be hard, and we will have our work cut out.

To all those who have suffered the destruction of their property, and to all those who have been terrified by rioting youths, I can only say how sorry I am and how heartbroken I am by the losses they have suffered.

People will ask how the police could have allowed things to get so out of control.

There will be questions about police numbers and tactics, to say nothing of the original questions about the circumstances of the shooting of Mark Duggan, which must be thoroughly investigated.

These are legitimate questions that I, and others, will continue to pose. And yet it would be an utter travesty to blame these events on the police.

The police did not riot. The police did not loot or recklessly set fire to property. The police did not attack innocent bystanders.

These were the actions of criminals who took part in premeditated acts of violence and theft. I have read some of the conspiratorial “tweets” and frankly I find them nauseating in their jocular greed and brutality.

Yes, the UK has been going through the worst recession for 50 years, and yes, times have been tough.

But you don’t boost London’s job-generating prospects by smashing London’s shops. You don’t make it easier for small businesses to take on apprentices and interns by torching their premises.

Some people say these riots can be explained by the feeling of the looters that they “have no alternative.”

There is always an alternative to violence. Nothing can conceivably excuse the wanton destruction of property belonging to people who have been responding to the recession in a different way – by working harder, and getting up at 5 am to prepare their shops.

There have already been hundreds of arrests as a result of these events. We can expect more.

The rioters should reflect that they can cause temporary damage to the livelihoods of others, but that they can permanently wreck their own lives.

Together with colleagues I will today be going to some of the worst affected areas and talking to residents. I will have one overriding message: that London can and must come back from this.

We will repair every shop. We will rebuild every damaged area. We will accelerate initiatives already underway to stimulate growth and enterprise in areas such as Croydon and Tottenham.

We will redouble out efforts to deal with the root causes of the alienation of young people. We must tackle the illiteracy of the Under 11s, and through Team London we are recruiting more volunteers to help kids who are falling behind.

We have already helped to sponsor 30,000 apprenticeships. We need to take it up to 100,000. We have recruited 1700 black male mentors for some of the most difficult boys. We need to get up to 3000.

Above all, we need to rebuild trust between the police and the community. Huge progress has been made in the last ten years, but more needs to be done, especially in the recruitment of black and other minority ethnic officers.

We can make that progress, and we can repair the damage that has been done both at home and abroad. But first this madness must stop.”

London Councils Executive Member for Community Safety Cllr Claire Kober said:

“There is simply no justification for the widespread acts of criminality we have seen across the capital over the weekend. These people have attacked their own communities and they need to be brought to justice.

“Councillors across the capital will be working to help support their residents and allow the police and other emergency services to do their jobs.

“In the aftermath of these events, it is important that we do not lose sight of the great strides that have been made through community policing in the capital. This is not the 1980s and we are a much stronger, more resilient city for it.

“All of us in London government must look carefully at our response to these events. We have to focus our efforts on the interventions that we know work – from supporting youth offending teams to community-led initiatives to promote calm.

“We know that Londoners do not condone the actions of this minority and we will do all we can to strengthen and support our communities in responding to these criminal acts.”

Joanne McCartney AM, London Assembly Member for Enfield & Haringey said:

“I am appalled and dismayed by the extreme disturbances over these past few nights – there is no excuse or justification for these actions, and they are rightly comdemned by all of us.

I have visited the scences of wanton destruction in Tottenham and Enfield and have spoken to residents and traders about their utter disbelief and heartbreak – some of our neighbours are homeless, have lost their businesses and their livelihoods. These attacks are against all of us – but our community is resilient and will not allow these mindless looters and criminals to prevent us rebuilding and assisting those directly affected by these criminal acts.

Numbers of police officers have been injured, some seriously, and we must support all our emergency services as they put themselves in the front line and deal with these extraordinarily violent events.

Following the tragic death of Mark Duggan last Thursday his family are waiting for answers about the exact circumstances in which he died.  Mr Duggans’ family have spoken out against this violence. There are questions that need to be answered and it is right that this is independently investigated by the IPCC and that this is done as quickly as possible.

These events are a tragedy for London and pictures of devastation on our streets are being played the over the world – this does not represent the city I know and love.”

Ken Livingtone said: “The first priority must be to restore calm and peace to Tottenham. This is vital for the safety and wellbeing of all Londoners.

“As Tottenham’s Labour MP David Lammy has also said, justice can only follow a thorough investigation of the facts, but to understand those facts, we must have calm.

“People have had their homes and businesses damaged and destroyed – there can be no justification for that.

“While the first priority is to restore peace, to ensure the safety of everyone now and in the future it is also necessary to have a serious discussion about why this has happened.

“I am concerned that there is growing social dislocation in London and a threat that the police will be forced into escalating conflict with some London communities. We do not want to go back to the 1980s.

“The economic stagnation and cuts being imposed by the Tory government inevitably create social division. As when Margaret Thatcher imposed such policies during her recessions this creates the threat of people losing control, acting in completely unacceptable ways that threaten everyone, and culminating in events of the type we saw in Tottenham.

“Tories will issue knee-jerk statements demanding support for the police but they are actually cutting the police. That amounts to pure hypocrisy.

“The events in Tottenham show the need for the Tory Mayor Boris Johnson to cease seeing the job as one centring on trivial self-publicity and instead get a grip of the serious problems facing London. Boris Johnson’s policies of undermining community policing are particularly dangerous to Londoners under the conditions of the unnecessarily deep recession being imposed by the Tory-led government. In a period of cuts and unemployment it would be extreme folly to continue to erode the neighbourhood policing teams that put the Met into direct daily contact with communities and ensure a closer understanding between local people and the Met. The plan to force hundreds of sergeants in local police teams to reapply for their own jobs must be abandoned.

“Similarly at a time when we have seen the return of civil disorder it makes no sense to overstretch the police and make it harder for them to work, as the police cuts of Theresa May and Boris Johnson are doing. These Conservative cuts in police numbers must be halted.”

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