Investigation into poverty

All week we've been exploring the issue of poverty in London - how many are living in squalid, overcrowded conditions, some even in slums.

Tonight we're reporting on how older Londoners are trying to survive on their pensions.

As part of our special series on poverty in the capital, Ria Chatterjee has met one woman who is so poor she's living in an old air raid shelter.

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All week, we have been reporting on some of London's poorest residents.

Today we hear from a pensioner and widow forced to sleep in an air-raid shelter because she's been priced out of the housing market.

Ria Chatterjee's been to meet her.

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London Tonight exposes the overcrowded properties that are homes to thousands of East London families.

Our special investigation comes as one London borough announces its plans to make it harder for people to get a council house.

This comes after the Olympics showed the world a London at its best. But in the shadow of the Olympic Park is a London most would want kept hidden. Families living in extreme poverty, living in the capital city in 21st century slums.

The London Fire Brigade has called on Londoners to report such slums because they are such a fire risk. But for most of the quarter of a million families living in overcrowded conditions, there is little choice.

For the second part in our series on poverty, Ria Chatterjee reports on the homes that are known simply as 'sheds with beds'.

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London Tonight has conducted a special investigation into poverty in the capital. London is one of the richest cities in the world, a financial power, a magnet for a moneyed elite.

In stark contrast, there are families, even entire neighbourhoods, facing a daily struggle just to get through the day.

For the first of her reports on poverty, Ria Chatterjee looks at the growth in the number of people dependent on food banks.

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