London's district of Hackney has been slammed as the worst place to live in the UK, according to a poll.

Mixed-use schemes are seen by many policymakers as a panacea for a variety of problems. To some, mixed use is the solution to the problem of current inadequate housing supply; to others it is a means of delivering sustainable development and sustainable communities.

More than 400,000 east Europeans have registered to work in the U.K. since their countries joined the EU in 2004. The government estimated 26,000 would come.

Poland's 15.5 percent unemployment rate is the highest in the EU, compared with 3 percent in Britain. A full-time waitress in Poland making the minimum wage would earn £157 a month, compared with the equivalent of £853 in Britain, according to the European Commission. 100,000 Poles who have moved to London since Poland joined the European Union in 2004, the Federation of Poles in Great Britain says.

Further evidence that the regeneration of Thames Gateway is not what it could be comes from a study by the University of East London. It reveals that 82 per cent of homes being built in the region to the east of London are one and two-bedroom flats, raising fears that families will fail to move into the area. The research blamed government targets for the high density of building and gave a warning that we could be repeating the design mistakes of the 1960s and 1970s.

BETHNAL GREEN and Stratford have come first and second in a poll of the capital's most promising hotspots for first-time buyers. (Newham Recorder)

Landlords with houses in multi-occupation (HMO) are selling up to avoid the new licensing arrangements introduced by the UK Government in April 2006.