Affordable housing is most important issue for Londoners

Affordable housing is the biggest concern of Londoners, a new poll reveals.

The issue is ranked more important than safety and crime for the second year, even after 27 young Londoners were shot or stabbed to death last year.

The findings emerge in the Mayor's annual London survey, in which 1,434 residents were questioned.

In the Ipsos Mori poll, 51 per cent named affordable housing/property prices as the most important issue in improving the capital, compared with 43 per cent who named crime and 33 per cent who said the NHS.

Almost three-quarters were happy with life in London, while 14 per cent were fairly or very dissatisfied. The best things were the range of shops, job opportunities, transport and the mixture of people living here. The worst were the cost of living, crime and traffic.

In the poll, conducted between October and December, 61 per cent of respondents said they felt very or fairly safe walking in their neighbourhood in the evening - up two per cent since the roll-out of safer neighbourhood teams. A third felt "a bit, or very" unsafe.

The number very or fairly satisfied at the way their area was policed was 51per cent, up from 40 per cent in 2004.

Roads were considered more in need of improvement than the Underground, with better maintenance top of the list. The biggest issue for the Tube was overcrowding, named by 53 per cent of respondents. On the buses, it was fares.

Ken Livingstone's popularity is at a record level, said the poll, with 44 per cent very or fairly satisfied with his performance compared with 22 per cent fairly or very dissatisfied. Of those satisfied, 18 per cent - up from five per cent - referred to his personality/attitude. Of those dissatisfied, 27 per cent - up from 19 per cent - mentioned the same issue.

Mr Livingstone said: "With so many Londoners struggling to get on the property ladder it is not surprising that housing is the number one priority."