A four-minute sit-down with Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey

Sir Ed Davey said the Lib Dems are hoping to win Merton Council next year

Ahead of this autumn's party conferences, BBC London's political editor Karl Mercer is sitting down with leaders, or deputy leaders, for four minutes each to discuss some of the key issues facing the capital and what their party might do to tackle some of them.

Here, he interviews Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats.

KM: Why on earth should people in inner London vote for the Lib Dems - because they've decided in their numbers, pretty much, that they don't want to any more?

ED: I think we're finding on the ground that people are coming towards us, partly because they like what we're saying on things like the NHS and social care.

We're the only party pressing Labour for a solution on social care, but they also like our community politics, where we're actually on the doors talking to people, listening to them and then responding to their issues. Whether it's something in their local road or something in their borough.

KM: Well let's talk about the boroughs then. In 19 out of London's 32 boroughs there is not a single Lib Dem councillor.

ED: We've been building back, you're right that we lost a lot of councillors back in the past, but we've been really building back. So we now control three London boroughs and got big majorities there and we're increasingly confident that we can hold on to those.

We're hoping to win another borough, Merton, from Labour. It would take a very good night, but I think there's a chance we could do that.

And then in areas that we used to be strong, like Lambeth and Southwark and Camden, we are coming back. We just won a by-election in Camden recently from Labour.

KM: That's taken your total of London councillors to 181 out of 1,800. You've got three out of 32 boroughs. You're kind of the 10% party in London?

ED: Well, we've been building back. I think you've just admitted that effectively. We hope to fight elections across London and start making sure many more people across our great city are represented by Liberal Democrats.

KM: Isn't the truth though that you are essentially a regional party in London for the middle-class suburbanites of south-west London? And the appeal that you used to have in places like Haringey, in places like Brent, in places like Islington - where you used to run the council - and places like Southwark, you are no longer the force you were?

ED: Actually I think London is a liberal city. I think it looks outward and I think it, we have been building back, but we've been building back really successfully. And I think you'll find in the London borough elections next May, more Liberal Democrats in many more boroughs.

We've been looking at the way that the council by-elections have been going. I mentioned the one in Camden, which we had a really good victory just the other week. I think we can do many more of that, many more such victories.

KM: Would you accept housing is going to be a crucial issue here in the capital?

ED: Yeah, totally. I mean, take my own borough in Kingston. I have to confess my wife is the housing portfolio holder. We've got the largest council house-building programme for over 40 years. And we are building more homes and pushing the mayor to support our most ambitious strategy.

KM: But if you look at the government stats on additional affordable dwellings for 2023 to 2024, the number of starts in Liberal Democrat-run Richmond was zero, and in neighbouring Sutton, also Lib Dem-run, it was one. It doesn't show a great commitment to building affordable homes, does it?

ED: Well, there's been a lot of challenges which have actually come from both Conservative and Labour policies. Let me give you one: the building safety regulator which is now stopping lots of homes that are being built even being occupied because it's been very badly organised.

We've had real problems with the water companies. I don't know if that's the case in Richmond and Sutton, but we found that although we've been building these properties, thanks to delays by the water companies, by the electricity companies, even by the gas companies, those buildings aren't being finished.

So what I've been saying to the government and Liberal Democrat authorities have been saying across the piece, can you please sort yourselves out? We want to give people affordable homes, but these utilities and indeed the government's own regulator, it's getting in the way.