Raging wildfires surrounding Los Angeles have spread to Hollywood Hills, a residential neighbourhood overlooking the historic Hollywood area of the city.

The Sunset fire broke out at around 18:00 (14:00 GMT) local time on Wednesday, covering much of Hollywood in thick smoke and forcing an evacuation order.

While driving in Hollywood, I saw many people running away from their homes with whatever belongings they could carry.

As I pulled over, some of them responded to me in fear and anxiety.

"Are you here to help people? Where do I go?" Anna Waldman asked as I got out of my car.

"Where is it safe?"

Above us, sirens had gone off and helicopter blades were whipping.

As I helped her get to a safe area, she told me she was walking her dogs and had planned to stop by a grocery store when she smelled heavy smoke.

She went back home, looked out her windows, and watched the fire move quickly through the Hollywood Hills to within a block from her home.

She packed what she could: food, clothes, blankets, food for her three small dogs.

"I can't believe this," she said in exhaustion.

Makayla Jackson, 26, held her two-year-old son Ramari on the corner of a street as they waited for a ride. They had been evacuated from a homeless shelter that was in danger of burning.

"They just told us to get out and go," she told me.

She said she was heading toward Hollywood High School, where more help was being offered.

Much of the heart of Hollywood is blanketed in thick smoke. You can barely see the tops of the towering palm trees that line streets here.

It is utter chaos on the streets near the fire. People are using sweatshirts to cover their faces so they can breathe. Many are carrying bags and suitcases looking for a place to go.

Some are wearing pyjamas, clearly taken by surprise.

Many of the roads near the blaze, such as the iconic Hollywood Boulevard, which includes the Hollywood Walk of Fame, are gridlocked with traffic.

Some are even driving on the wrong side of the road to escape.

The inferno could be seen from nearby freeways, lighting up the dark with bright red hues.

On the outskirts of the legendary city though, it is as though nothing is happening. People are eating dinner, shopping and going about their evenings.

Police are investigating the illegal release of two lynx in the Highlands and have urged the public not to approach the wild cats.

The alarm was raised at about 16:20 when they were spotted in the Drumguish area, near to Kingussie.

Specially trained staff from the Highland Wildlife Park are assisting officers to trace the animals.

The Cairngorms National Park Authority said they were shy and a "low risk" to humans but added they should not be approached.

A spokesperson said: "We condemn the illegal release of wild animals in the strongest possible terms and we are also concerned for the welfare of the lynx that have been released."

The authority also said people should not attend the area and appealed to anyone with information about the lynx to contact police.

The wild cats were once native to Britain, but were driven to extinction 500 to 1,000 years ago.

But some conservation groups have been campaigning to have the wild cats reintroduced to Scotland.

Lynx to Scotland, a three-charity partnership working to restore lynx to the Scottish Highlands, said it had been made aware of the release.

Peter Cairns, executive director of Scotland: The Big Picture, one of the charities involved, said: "The Lynx to Scotland Project knows nothing of the origin of these two lynx, their history, health status, or who may have released them.

"We understand the frustration of all those who wish to see lynx restored to the Scottish landscape, but an illegal release is not the way to achieve that aim."

Mr Cairns said the project had never supported or condoned illegal releases.

He added: "This is unwelcome and grossly irresponsible, but comes at the worst possible time, when stakeholders are engaging in good faith with productive discussions about the possibility of a responsibly managed and fully resourced legal reintroduction."

RSPB Scotland said it was collaborating with the police, relevant governing bodies and partner organisations.

A spokesperson said: "Whilst we support lynx reintroduction as a formerly native species to Scotland, we work within official conservation translocation guidelines and therefore do not support unofficial releases which only set back approved conservation projects."

A spokesperson for farmers' union NFU Scotland said: "We hope that the released predators are caught as soon as possible and before any livestock or any other animals are destroyed.

"We ask all those living and working in the local rural community to be vigilant and report any sightings."

There is huge anger among campaigners who have long been arguing for these apex predators to be returned to the wild in Scotland.

It is a highly controversial plan and has required some careful manoeuvring by conservationists to try and make it a reality.

They are convinced these two animals have been illegally released by someone who has grown tired of that process and taken the law into their own hands.

It has happened before with another species.

Beavers were released illegally in Perthshire while consultations over their formal reintroduction were still ongoing and the population has since exploded.

Farmers hate the idea of wild lynx because of concerns they might target their lambs for food.

If that happens in the coming days, campaigners fear it would end their ambitions of a reintroduction for decades.

It is possible the two cats could disappear into the wild, mate and produce the first genuinely wild lynx in more than five centuries.

But experts say the fact these secretive animals have been spotted several times suggests they might actually be too domesticated to survive in the wild.

If you think Ezra Collective's music is life-affirming, just wait until you meet them in person.

Tumbling into the BBC's Maida Vale studios, the band are boisterous and charming, the sort of people to greet a perfect stranger like a long-lost cousin.

Bandleader and drummer Femi Koleoso has a room-filling smile and a zest for life that infuses his music.

"We're just trying to bring something positive and joyful to whoever will listen," he says. "So anything that exposes us to more people is always gratefully received."

Today, that means the honour of being named runner-up in the BBC's Sound Of 2025.

The annual poll, which has been running since 2003, has tipped everyone from 50 Cent and Adele, to Raye and Dua Lipa for success.

Ezra Collective's addition to the list comes relatively late in their career. They've already won the Mercury Prize, for their second album Where I'm Meant To Be, and last November, they became the first jazz act to sell out Wembley Arena.

But to their minds, the band are still newcomers.

Koleoso recalls the thrumming intensity of making his Wembley debut.

"Fifteen minutes before the gig, I made the horrific mistake of reading the wall backstage," he says.

"They'd put up the names of everyone who'd played there before us. So it was like, 'OK, Beyoncé played here, and Jay-Z and Stormzy and Madonna… And now it's Ezra Collective's turn'."

If they were intimidated, it didn't show. The quintet turn audience participation into an artform, venturing out into the crowd and making fans part of their ensemble, almost like a New Orleans parade.

Reviews were ecstatic, calling the show a "masterclass in musicianship" that left "every single person with a smile on their face."

As a result, Ezra Collective's name will be added to the Wembley Wall – but Koleoso wants it to have a radically different effect.

"Wouldn't it be great if, in 10 years' time, some band is getting intimidated by Beyoncé and Madonna, and then they see our name, and they're like, 'Oh yeah, they came into our school to do an assembly - so we'll be fine'?".

Community and musical kinship is Ezra Collective's foundation stone; one that can be traced back to the youth club Tomorrow's Warriors, where they first met in central London in 2012.

The charity offers training to musicians who can't afford private tuition, with a special focus on "those with a background from the African Diaspora and girls, who are often under-represented in the music industry".

"It's where I met my best friends," says Koleoso, who remains a passionate supporter of youth clubs.

"Not to get too deep, but how do you fix domestic violence or the male suicide rate? You teach a 14-year-old boy how to deal with rejection, how to love people, how to control anger, how to respect others.

"Youth clubs can help with that. By the time someone's 24, it's almost too late."

When Koleoso first visited Tomorrow's Warriors with his brother TJ, they'd already formed a tight rhythm section in their church band. In fact, Femi had been playing drums since he was four.

"Maybe I'm slightly biased, but I think the drums are the best instrument, because you can see what's going on," he says.

"When I watch our horn section, I'm hearing thousands of notes, but I'm only seeing three valves. It doesn't quite make sense. But with the drums, you hit them and they make a sound.

"I wish everything was as simple as that."

Tomorrow's Warriors introduced Koleoso to jazz, a genre he'd previously considered elite and inaccessible, and to his future bandmates James Mollison (sax), Ife Ogunjobi (keyboards) and Dylan Jones (trumpet).

Together, they ripped the genre rulebook to shreds, magpie-ing elements of Afrobeat, hip-hop, grime, reggae, Latin, R&B, highlife and jazz to create a sound that bulges with possibility.

"We're the shuffle generation," explains Koleoso. "We listen to Beethoven and 50 Cent comes on straight after. That influences the way we approach music: We love jazz but at the same time I love salsa too, so why not try and get that in there?"

After playing their first gig in a Foyles bookshop, they released their debut EP, Chapter 7, in 2016, and a debut album, You Can't Steal My Joy in 2019.

Then Covid hit.

"We were meant to do a world tour but shortly after we arrived in New Zealand, we were told get back to London because the world was collapsing," says Koleoso.

Lockdown inspired their second album, but instead of introspection and gloom, it's an immensely energetic record, fuelled by the promise of post-pandemic reconnection.

"What we found was we had each other," says Koleoso. "It felt like we were meant to be together, and we made as many tracks as we could that articulate that."

When it won the Mercury Prize, the follow-up was already in the bag.

Dance, No-One's Watching was recorded over three days ("one was just setting up") at Abbey Road Studios, with the band still slightly worse-for-wear after a weekend at the Notting Hill Carnival.

The idea was to capture the excitement of their live show direct to tape – with an audience of family and friends to stop them obsessing over the technicalities of recording.

"What you're hearing is very, very real. We just played it and then had a listen back, and were like, 'Yeah, put it on a vinyl'."

That's why the album features a short, aborted performance of Ajala, with Koleoso instructing his bandmates to play harder on the next take.

"A lot of people think that's a skit, but it was a very real moment," he says. "I wanted the song to go off, but it didn't, so we stopped and tried again.

"Those things are precious, because they will never happen again.

"There's a lot of things in the world that don't feel real enough, but music shouldn't be one of them."

In contrast to its predecessor, the album is immersed in the real world. Themed around a night out in London, it celebrates the sacred power of dancing and losing yourself in music with other people.

There's even a song titled N29, after the night bus Koleso used to catch home from nights out in London.

Anyone who's braved one of those 3am rides home will recognise the song's mixture of post-club euphoria, random conversations and the backdrop of potential violence.

Koleoso says his first experience of that liminal reality came after his high school prom.

"Our school got one of those fancy little boats on the Thames and everyone paid their £20, which, for a state school in Enfield, was an impressive night out," he recalls.

"This was at the height of grime and funky house, so I'm just having the best time in my life, dancing on this boat in a suit… then I missed the last tube home."

In a time before Google Maps, it took a while to locate the right bus. When he finally clambered on board, it was carnage.

"I grew 10 years in that one journey, do you know what I mean?" he laughs. "I saw waaaay to much life!"

His desire to document life in all its messy, wonderful glory is the album's core.

"In 2022, we got to travel the whole world. We had amazing nights in New Orleans, on colourful streets with so much going on that it's hard to describe.

"And you'd think, 'How do I get this feeling into a song? I want someone in their flat in Edmonton to get a glimpse of this.'

"Or you'd go to the shrine in Lagos and be like, 'I need to convey the feeling of the shrine to someone who lives in Cardiff.'"

Ezra Collective's ever-growing audience suggests they've successfully completed that mission.

But there's one person who'll be surprised: Koleoso's A-level music teacher.

"Here's the secret, I got a D in music," he confesses.

"I was pretty embarrassed, because it made difficult to convince my parents that playing music was gonna be OK.

"But what it tells you is that exams can determine one type of intelligence, but they're not the be-all and end-all.

"If there was an exam in shutting down shows, I think I'd do better than a D."

Amen to that.

Firefighters in Los Angeles are battling a number of blazes in city suburbs, as tens of thousands of residents are forced to flee.

The rapidly changing situation is compounded by Santa Ana winds and extremely dry conditions. Currently authorities say there is no possibility of bringing the fires under control.

The Palisades fire, which is closest to the coast and also the largest, has ripped through picturesque suburbs which are home to many Hollywood stars. More than 1,000 buildings have already been destroyed.

Here's how the fires have spread and are affecting the Los Angeles area.

An overview of the current fires

Four major fires are currently being tackled.

The Palisades fire was first reported at 10:30 (18:30 GMT) on Tuesday, and grew in just 20 minutes from a blaze of 20 acres to more than 200 acres, then more than tenfold in a matter of a few more hours. At least 30,000 people have so far been ordered to leave their homes.

The Eaton fire grew to cover 1,000 acres within the first six hours of breaking out. It started in Altadena in the hills above Pasadena at around 18:30 local time on Tuesday.

The Hurst fire is located just north of San Fernando. It began burning on Tuesday at around 22:10 local time, growing to 500 acres, according to local officials. It has triggered evacuation orders in neighbouring Santa Clarita.

The latest of the four fires is the Woodley fire, currently 75 acres in size. It broke out at approximately 06:15 local time on Wednesday.

• Follow latest updates on the LA wildfires
• Watch: Smoke billows as thousands evacuate in LA
• 'Run for your lives!' residents abandon cars to flee fire on foot
• Timelapse shows rapid spread of Palisades wildfire
• Watch: Inside a neighbourhood totally lost in inferno
• Pacific Palisades: The celebrity LA area ravaged by wildfire

How did the Palisades fire spread?

The Palisades fire has so far burnt through more than 2,900 acres. The map above shows how rapidly the blaze spread, intensifying in a matter of hours. At just after 14:00 on Tuesday it covered 772 acres and within four hours it had expanded approximately to its current size.

Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate, as more than 1,400 firefighters try to tackle the blaze.

How does the Palisade fire compare in size with New York and London?

To give an idea of the size of the Palisades fire, we have superimposed it on to maps of New York and London.

As you can see, it is comparable in size with the central area of UK's capital, or with large areas of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.

How the fires look from space

Another indication of the scale of the Palisades fire comes from Nasa's Earth Observatory.

The images captured on Tuesday show a huge plume of smoke emanating from California and drifting out to sea.

Effects of the Eaton fire

The Palisade fire is not the only one to have a devastating effect on neighbourhoods of Los Angeles.

The above images show the Jewish Temple in Pasadena before and during the Eaton fire.

The Jewish Temple and Centre's website says it has been in use since 1941 and has a congregation of more than 400 familes.

The affluent Los Angeles neighbourhood of Pacific Palisades typically has strangers walking around, trying to catch a glimpse of celebrities' houses.

Now, though, its streets are filled with firefighters battling a 3,000-acre wildfire that is ravaging the area.

Across the city, more than 30,000 have been forced to evacuate their homes as winds stoke three fires. A state of emergency has been declared, leaving roads gridlocked as people flee.

Among them, a number of famous faces have been forced to flee their usually idyllic California homes, including Star Wars' Mark Hamill and Schitt's Creek actor Eugene Levy.

James Woods, who has starred in films including Nixon and Casino, described evacuating his home on social media, and said he was not sure if it was still standing.

"It feels like losing a loved one," he wrote.

Pacific Palisades is known for being exclusive, with a house costing $4.5m (£3.6m) on average as of November 2024, according to Realtor.com.

The north LA neighbourhood is bordered on the south with a three-mile (4.8km) stretch of beaches on the Pacific Ocean, nestled between Malibu and Santa Monica.

It is a hub for trendy shops, cafes and a farmers' market.

But the Palisades fire - which grew from 10 acres to over 2,900 in a matter of hours - has shattered they area's idyllic nature.

Mark Hamill, of Star Wars fame, called the blaze the "most horrific fire since '93" - which burned 18,000 acres and destroyed 323 homes in nearby Malibu - in a post on Instagram.

He said he evacuated his home in Malibu "so last-minute there [were] small fires on both sides of the road".

Levy, who rose to fame for his role in film series American Pie, told local media he was forced to evacuate his home.

"The smoke looked pretty black and intense over Temescal Canyon. I couldn't see any flames but the smoke was very dark," he recounted to the Los Angeles Times.

Reality star's Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag lost their family home in the fire, his sister wrote on Instagram.

"I am beyond heartbroken for my brother, Heidi and the kids," she said. "Even the fire station in the Palisades has burned down."

Miles Teller, best known for his role in Top Gun: Maverick, and his wife Keleigh, also live in the area.

Posting on Instagram, Mrs Teller shared a picture of the fires and a heart-break emoji. She urged people to leave bowls of water for animals as they evacuate their homes.

Meanwhile, Actor Steve Guttenberg, known for Police Academy, stayed to help firefighters by moving cars in order to make room for incoming fire trucks.

He urged residents to leave the keys to their abandoned cars so they could be moved out the way of firefighters.

"We really need people to move their cars," he told news outlet KTLA: "This is not a parking lot."

It is not just famous residents affected by the wildfire - notable buildings in the area are under threat as well.

The Palisades Charter High School - which has served as a set for movies and counts several notable people as former students - has been damaged by fire, local media reports.

The fire-stricken school has been used in films including 1976 horror classic Carrie and Project X, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Former students include director JJ Abrams, musician Will.i.am, and actors Forest Whitaker and Katey Sagal.

The Getty Villa is an art museum in the Palisades that has a large collection of artworks and artefacts, including works by Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet.

The museum confirmed on Tuesday that it had closed to the public and that some trees and vegetation on site had burned - but said that "no structures are on fire, and staff and the collection remain safe".

Star studded events due to take place in the area have also been cancelled.

Film premiers for Unstoppable, Better Man and Wolfman have been called off, as has the Screen Actors Guild Awards live nominations event.

Many black staff members at London's world-famous Harrods department store would leave the shop floor before Mohamed Al Fayed toured the premises, former employees have told the BBC.

Staff would be given a warning before he appeared, says a former security guard, which was followed by a "beeline of certain people, certain races", leaving the floor.

"The level of racism was very clear," said "Henry" (not his real name).

These accounts follow a BBC documentary broadcast in September which included claims from more than 20 women that Mohamed Al Fayed sexually assaulted or raped them.

Harrods responded to the latest claims about racism by referring us to a previous statement in which it said it was "utterly appalled" by the abuse allegations made against Al Fayed, adding that it was a "very different organisation to the one owned and controlled" by him.

In November, the Met Police said it had launched a new investigation after 90 alleged new victims had come forward.

Henry told BBC Radio 5 Live's Clare McDonnell that before Al Fayed's daily walks around the store, there was a five-minute warning announced on guards' radios.

He said black people, and also other staff who didn't fit a certain look, would then leave the shop floor, in a "robotic" movement.

"It seemed very much like the protocol that [they] would disappear," he added.

He said the staff would leave the building via an underground tunnel, connecting the main store to an office across the road. Henry said they would then file back once Al Fayed had gone.

Another former staff member, who wishes to remain anonymous, also told the BBC that many black members of staff went to stock-rooms or "on tea breaks" when Al Fayed was visiting the shop floor. They also said that some women were sent to put on make-up.

Henry said the only staff who stayed on the shop floor were "young, thin, blonde", although some non-white door guards also remained.

Since the BBC's investigation was broadcast, we have heard scores of accounts of Al Fayed - who died in 2023 aged 94 - favouring women with these traits.

'Here today, gone today'

Lisa, who used to work in HR at the store, confirmed that security would "warn" staff members when Al Fayed was about to come onto the shop floor, so people he would be likely to "pick on" negatively could hide.

"Not the girls that he would like," she said, adding that those "hidden" would also include people who were "overweight".

"They were good at their jobs," she said. "We didn't want to keep losing staff."

The BBC has been told that staff were frequently sacked. Jon Brilliant, who worked in Al Fayed's private office for 18 months, has previously told the BBC that within Harrods there was surveillance, sackings and a culture designed to keep top managers from trusting or communicating with one another.

Henry agreed there was a culture of "paranoia, fear and bullying" while he worked as a security guard there.

During his initial training, he said he had been warned not to invest in a monthly travel pass because "you could be here today and you [could] be gone today".

Another former member of Harrods HR staff, Anna, said when she worked for the men's tailored suit division she was told not to employ anyone who was black, because "the customers wouldn't like it".

Once, she said, the best candidate was a Caribbean man, who was "head and shoulders above anyone else".

"I just sat there thinking, 'What a waste of my time and your time. I cannot employ you because of the colour of your skin.'"

Anna said she recorded that in his recruitment notes, and was reprimanded for doing so.

Lisa said on one occasion, Al Fayed "came right up to my face" and used a racist word to describe the type of people he didn't want her to hire.

'Culture of paranoia, fear and bullying'

A number of employment tribunals, successfully brought by people claiming racial discrimination, took place during Al Fayed's ownership of Harrods.

Henry said he didn't witness any sexual assault when he worked at the store, but there was "hearsay" amongst staff.

"I had lots of people tell me things, I suspected a lot of things, I saw some things, but who am I going to tell?" he said. "You can suspect all you want, but without having some proof… it's not evidence in court."

Al Fayed was accused of racism by Vanity Fair in 1995, an allegation he vehemently denied. It sparked a libel lawsuit that the billionaire later agreed to drop, as long as further evidence the magazine had gathered in preparation for a trial was locked away.

Many years after leaving his post, Henry said he still feared reprisals from people in the former chairman's security team.

"Just a few things I said to you could cost me my life - and if not my life, my livelihood," he said.

Despite these fears, he said other members of Harrods security staff should come forward to the authorities.

"If they have daughters, they have granddaughters, they have a mother, they should tell [what they know]… but I can assure you those people would keep their mouths shut."

The statement received from Harrods also said: "These were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms. We also acknowledge that during this time his victims were failed and for this we sincerely apologise."

It added: "While we cannot undo the past, we have been determined to do the right thing as an organisation, driven by the values we hold today, while ensuring that such behaviour can never be repeated in the future."

If you are affected by issues of sexual assault, information and support is available from BBC Action Line here

Hear the full interview with Henry on BBC Radio 5 Live's Drive programme on BBC Sounds, from 1600 GMT on Thursday 9 January

If you have information about this story that you would like to share please get in touch. Email MAFinvestigation@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.

Some local councils in England would need to see at least a five-fold increase in new housing to meet government targets, analysis by BBC Verify suggests.

The BBC's figures lay out the immense challenge Labour has set itself in government with its "milestone" of building 1.5 million new homes in England over five years.

In total, 16 local authorities across England have new annual targets that are five times or more what they have recently delivered.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said setting a specific target will "give the British people the power to hold our feet to the fire".

With that in mind, the BBC has created a new online tool for tracking the government's progress towards this key goal.

Type in your postcode and see the house building situation in your own area.

The government has also set annual housing targets for each local authority in England, based on what it judges their contribution to the overall total should be.

The most demanding target is for the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which has been set a target for new homes nearly 22 times its recent average.

The target for Sevenoaks in Kent is five times what it has been delivering on average in recent years, while the target for Portsmouth is more than eight times the average.

These specific targets will enable us to incorporate information into the tracker on what's happening on house building in every district in England.

It will show the number of homes added in an area and compare it with the local target set by ministers.

Our postcode lookup tool also shows the share of planning applications for new homes granted permissions in an area in the most recent year there is data for, and compares it with the England-wide average rate, so you can judge whether your council is approving enough building plans.

The tracker will be updated when relevant official data becomes available.

Hugely ambitious

The new government has described its housebuilding objective as "hugely ambitious" and that is no exaggeration.

To deliver 1.5 million homes, defined as "net additional dwellings", over five years implies a strike rate of about 300,000 a year - a number not achieved since the 1970s.

But while the England-wide target is highly ambitious in a historical context, the targets handed down to some local authorities are arguably even more so.

To create our postcode tracker we processed local data on:

• the number of annual net additional dwellings required
• the number of net additional dwellings created on average each year since 2021
• recent residential planning decisions by councils.

BBC Verify's analysis shows Kensington and Chelsea, a London borough, has been given a target of 5,107 new homes every year for the next five years. But the borough delivered an average of only 236 net additional dwellings between 2021-22 and 2023-24.

It did, however, approve 89% of planning applications for housing in the year to June 2024, considerably higher than the national rate of 71%.

Portsmouth, on the south coast, also has a very stretching target. The local council is being asked to deliver 1,021 new homes per year, almost nine times the 120 it delivered on average over the most recent three years.

Hastings has been tasked with a smaller total: 710. But this is still five times the 142 it has delivered on average in recent years.

Portsmouth approved 74% of residential planning applications in the year to June 2024 and Hastings 75%.

Councils were consulted on the targets last summer, with many expressing concerns they were "unrealistic", and the numbers were revised.

Councillor Elizabeth Campbell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea, said it was "out of touch to let algorithms set targets without understanding local context".

"You only have to walk through the streets of our densely built borough to see how unachievable it would be to build 5,107 homes a year here; this borough is only 4.5 miles squared."

She said there were two major sites in the borough that would provide 6,000 new homes in total.

Councillor Darren Sanders, cabinet member for housing at Portsmouth City Council, said the target "does not work" because "most of the city is an island" with a dense population and "important heritage and natural assets".

"Portsmouth has approved more than 4,000 new homes in 2023 and 2024. Any lack of delivery is down to the rising cost of development," he said, "not whether the council approves them."

Sevenoaks councillor Julia Thornton said it was a "top priority" to protect greenbelt land, but added: "We will have a duty to do everything possible to meet the government's new housing targets."

Sir Keir's housing minister, Matthew Pennycook, has said if councils fail to deliver enough houses the government could intervene.

"The government can take a local plan off a local authority that is resisting putting one in place, and we are absolutely willing to do it, if we have evidence that [they] are refusing to comply," he told the BBC.

The obstacles

The government said it had "inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory" and "all areas must play their part".

It has set out "a major planning overhaul… unblocking barriers to building, and setting out targets for councils to ramp up housebuilding, so new homes are built where they are most needed."

Most housing experts agree planning reform is necessary.

Yet analysts say it is not the only obstacle.

The construction industry has warned it is dealing with a chronic shortage of skilled workers.

The Home Builders Federation has cited aging workers and Brexit as some of the factors behind shortages.

The Construction Industry Training Board estimates the sector needs to attract the equivalent of 50,300 extra workers per year to meet the levels of work expected.

There are also concerns about the availability of basic building materials including bricks and timber.

The Construction Leadership Council has warned a shortage of these could hinder the government's ability to get near its target.

Finally, many housing experts doubt private housebuilders are capable of delivering enough new homes each year to reach the targets.

This is because private housebuilders have a commercial interest in not building so many new homes that their average price declines.

The Competition and Markets Authority concluded in February 2024 "private developers produce houses at a rate at which they can be sold without needing to reduce their prices".

A sharp decline in residential planning permissions in England in the year to June 2024 - hitting a new record low - was due to a collapse in applications from private builders, not a decline in the share of applications being approved by local authorities.

This collapse in applications probably reflected the impact of still-high mortgage interest rates and high house prices relative to average incomes, undermining the ability of people to afford newly built houses.

That's why some argue meeting the government's targets will also require a major increase in Whitehall grants to not-for-profit local housing associations, enabling them to build tens of thousands of new social and affordable homes, mainly to be rented out, in the coming years.

Interactive tool developed by Allison Shultes, Scott Jarvis and Steven Connor

About the data

Annual data on new homes for England comes from the government's "net additional dwellings" statistics.

These figures are estimates of changes in the total number of homes in each area, taking account of new build homes and existing building conversions, minus any demolitions.

The targets are the government's new "local housing need" calculations, released following a public consultation.

Planning statistics are taken from quarterly data and combine applications decided for "minor" housing developments (fewer than 10 homes) and "major" schemes (10 homes or more).

The planning data for England is at local authority level. Applications decided by special authorities, such as those in charge of national parks, are not included.

We have included the latest data on new housebuilding "completions" by local authority area for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but the 1.5 million homes target applies only in England.

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Ten-year-old Elliot, who is a big Pokemon fan, says he would like to put posters up and decorate his magnolia-coloured bedroom walls.

It's one of the things he and his four brothers would do if they had a permanent home.

Parents Sam and Jason have been living in temporary accommodation with their five boys for a year now after they were evicted from the house they were renting in Portsmouth.

Like many families, they had to move because the landlord wanted to sell and they couldn't afford "extortionate" rents when they started looking for a new home.

The local council placed them in a hotel for several weeks before moving them to a three-bedroom house.

The couple say living in limbo is incredibly hard and the uncertainty is distressing for the children.

"It doesn't feel like a home," says Jason. "We can't make this a home because we don't know how long we are going to be here for."

They are now one of more than 1,100 families on the waiting list for a council home in Portsmouth. Jason, 49, is a bus driver and says housing in England has become unaffordable for working families like his.

It comes as the government says it is now trying to tackle England's housing shortage by setting ambitious housebuilding targets for areas like Portsmouth, which could help people like Sam and Jason.

The aim is for 370,000 new homes in England every year, to fulfil a government promise for 1.5m new homes within the next five years. Local authorities are being told to give developers permission to build - and planning decisions will be pushed through by the government if necessary.

But some local councils in England will need to see a five-fold increase in new housing to meet government targets, analysis by BBC Verify suggests.

The BBC has created a new online tool to enable people to track the government's progress towards its goal where they live.

Portsmouth is one of a number of areas that will need to add more homes in one year than it has delivered in the previous five.

Between March 2019 and March 2024, Portsmouth added a total of 803 homes, equivalent to an increase of just under 1%.

This was the lowest percentage increase in homes of any local authority area in England, according to BBC analysis of housing data.

Portsmouth's target, set by the Labour government, is to add 1,021 homes a year.

The leader of the council, Steve Pitt says it will be impossible for the coastal authority to deliver that many homes.

He described the target as "stupid and arbitrary" and says it is pointless if there is nowhere to build.

"Portsmouth has a pretty unique geography. Eleven of the 14 wards in Portsmouth are on an island, so we only have a very limited amount of brownfield space," he says.

"We've always tried to explain this to government. They don't tend to listen."

Mr Pitt says the most homes the authority will be able to deliver is 800 a year, falling well short of the target.

"It doesn't matter whether they tell us to build more homes or not, or whether they want to fine us - they won't be built because there's nowhere to build them."

He accepts the area needs more homes and says the government should provide sufficient funding for affordable house building to get plans moving.

At the moment, he says it's "not viable" for social providers or private developers because they cannot guarantee future rental income will cover the build costs.

Housing is one of the biggest issues for people contacting us through Your Voice, Your BBC News.

Lily, 24, got in touch to say homeownership feels impossible and is "depressing".

She and her partner Jacob, 24 have two children and say thinking about where they are going to live is a "constant stress".

In 2023, they were evicted when their landlord wanted to sell the flat they were living in. They are now temporarily renting from a family member but would like their own home.

"All we want is for [our children] to have what we had when we were little, the security of a family home," says Lily.

Lily and Jacob say there are new homes being built in the area, but they aren't affordable for families like hers.

To try to save for a deposit, Jacob quit his job in a school and began working nights in a warehouse but he says he doesn't think there's "a chance in hell" of saving the £25,000 to £30,000 he says they would need to put down on a property.

The family live in the Gloucestershire town of Lydney.

BBC analysis of official data shows that areas in the South West delivered an average of about 23,000 new homes per year in the last three years.

Government targets suggest they are going to have to increase that amount by almost three-quarters, to 40,000 a year. Some recent local plans have been refused or faced opposition.

It's many of the London boroughs that face the most significant challenges. Kensington and Chelsea delivered just 245 homes last year. The authority's target is more than 20 times that; more than 5,000 homes per year.

Zach Murphy, 25, lives at home with his parents in the borough. He says there's little hope of getting on the housing ladder in London.

He moved back into his parents' home while studying for his Masters in environmental science.

"The whole reason why I did my Masters was to get a higher paid job. You need that to set yourself up better. If you want to have a family - you need a house."

Zach has been on the rental ladder before, sharing a home with two friends - each of them paying £1,000 per month. The high rent and cost of living left him with little to save.

BBC analysis has found some outliers in the data. Salford has built more homes in recent years than the government expectation.

Labour's mayor of the city, Paul Dennett, says most have been high-rise apartments in the city centre and not enough of them have been for those on low incomes.

"The market itself isn't delivering the level of truly affordable housing. It really isn't."

Salford currently has 5,000 households in temporary accommodation. The mayor has committed to building 600 council homes for rent during his five-year term.

Indeed, the council has set up its own business called Derive to build homes that will be for rent only. Tenants won't be able to buy them.

"Since 1980 we've lost over 10,000 homes under right to buy here just in the city of Salford," Mr Dennett says.

He believes the country needs to get back to councils building homes again rather than relying on the private sector.

He tells us he doesn't have a problem with the government setting targets - if authorities are delivering "truly affordable housing".

"We have inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory," says a spokesperson for the ministry for housing, communities and local government.

"This is why all areas must play their part to deliver 1.5 million homes."

The government says it has unveiled sweeping changes to the planning system and vowed to override "blockers" standing in the way of building the new homes.

Yet for families like Sam and Jason and Lily and Jacob, owning a home or even renting in the private sector, still feels like an unattainable dream.

Additional reporting by Jade Thompson

About the data

Annual data on new homes for England comes from the government's "net additional dwellings" statistics.

These figures are estimates of changes in the total number of homes in each area, taking account of new build homes and existing building conversions, minus any demolitions.

The targets are the government's new "local housing need" calculations, released following a public consultation.

Planning statistics are taken from quarterly data and combine applications decided for "minor" housing developments (fewer than 10 homes) and "major" schemes (10 homes or more).

The planning data for England is at local authority level. Applications decided by special authorities, such as those in charge of national parks, are not included.

We have included the latest data on new housebuilding "completions" by local authority area for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but the 1.5 million homes target applies only in England.

Interactive tool developed by Allison Shultes, Scott Jarvis, Steven Connor and Daniel Wainwright

Design by Charlie Colbourne and testing by Preeti Vaghela

A mandatory evacuation order has been issued in the Hollywood Hills following the spread of the wildfires raging across Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) said there was an "immediate threat to life" in the area and that it was being legally closed to the public.

At least five fires are currently active across Los Angeles, with five people confirmed to have been killed.

More than 130,000 people have already had to evacuate, and the homes of a number of celebrities - including Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal - have been destroyed.

The first fire began on Tuesday in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, near Malibu, with others subsequently breaking out across the north of the city.

As of 20:15 local time (04:00 GMT), four fires in the areas of the Palisades, Pasadena, Sylmar, and the Hollywood Hills covered more than 27,000 acres (42 sq miles; 109 sq km) and were 0% contained, according to the LAFD.

One fire in the Acton area had been partially contained, while two others had been completely contained.

The fire in the Hollywood Hills - a residential neighbourhood overlooking the historic Hollywood area of the city - began at around 18:00 local time on Wednesday.

Less than two hours later, much of the heart of Hollywood was blanketed with thick smoke, and the tops of the palm trees that line its streets were barely visible.

People used sweatshirts to cover their faces to help them breathe, while others - clearly surprised by the fire - wore only pyjamas. Many carried bags and suitcases, talking on their phones as they made plans for where to go.

Many of the roads near the fire - including Hollywood Boulevard, home to the Hollywood Walk of Fame - were gridlocked with traffic. Some people even drove on the wrong side of the road as they tried to get out of the area.

Resident Anna Waldman told the BBC she had set out to walk her dog but smelled smoke almost instantly when she went outside.

She went back inside and, looking out her back windows, saw fire, and watched as it moved quickly thought the Hollywood Hills, coming to within a block of her home.

She packed what she could: food, clothes, blankets, food for her three small dogs.

"I can't believe this," she said in exhaustion, pulling down her face mask.

Makayla Jackson, 26, and her two-year-old son, Ramari, had been evacuated from a homeless shelter that was in danger of burning, and now stood on the street waiting for a ride to a high school where help was being offered to people.

"They just told us to get out and go," she said.

Firefighters tackling the blazes have experienced water shortages and have had to resort to taking water from swimming pools and ponds.

Officials said three separate one-million-gallon tanks were full before the fires began, but that the elevation of the fires meant water couldn't move quickly enough to hydrants in the affeted areas.

The city also doesn't typically see fires of this magnitude - the Palisades blaze is already the most destructive in its history - and its systems are designed for urban use, not fighting wildfires.

The Chinese government has expanded a list of products that people can trade in to get a discount of as much as 20% on new goods as the country tries to boost its flagging economy.

The list now includes items like microwave ovens, dishwashers, rice cookers and water purifiers.

State-backed trade-in schemes already covered televisions, phones, tablets and smart watches as well as electric and hybrid vehicles.

The world's second largest economy has been facing several challenges, including weak consumer demand and a deepening property crisis.

On Wednesday, officials said 81 billion yuan (£8.9bn; $11bn) had been earmarked this year for the consumer goods trade-in scheme.

China's top economic planning body has said the schemes, which were launched in March, have already produced "visible effects".

According to the country's Ministry of Commerce, the policies have boosted sales of big items items such as home appliances and cars.

But some economists have questioned whether the schemes will be enough to significantly increase consumer consumption.

"The approach has had mixed success so far," said Harry Murphy Cruise, head of China economics at Moody's Analytics.

"While it has supported sales of some listed goods, such as cars and appliances, it hasn't driven an overall uptick in spending."

In recent months, China has been pushing ahead with more measures to support its domestic economy as the country's exporters face growing challenges.

In December, a key meeting of China's leaders stressed the need for "vigorous" efforts to boost consumer spending.

That came as President-elect Donald Trump, who is due to return to the White House this month, threatened to impose a 60% tariff on Chinese-made products.

China is due to announce its 2024 economic growth figures next week, which Beijing has said it expects will be around 5%.

Ashish Chauhan dreams of pursuing an MBA at an American university next year - a goal he describes as being "stamped in his brain".

The 29-year-old finance professional from India (whose name has been changed on request) hopes to eventually work in the US, but says he now feels conflicted amid an immigration row sparked by President-elect Donald Trump's supporters over a long-standing US visa programme.

The H-1B visa programme, which brings skilled foreign workers to the US, faces criticism for undercutting American workers but is praised for attracting global talent. The president-elect, once a critic, now supports the 34-year-old programme, while tech billionaire Elon Musk defends it as key to securing top engineering talent.

Indian nationals like Mr Chauhan dominate the programme, receiving 72% of H-1B visas, followed by 12% for Chinese citizens. The majority of H-1B visa holders worked in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, with 65% in computer-related jobs, in 2023. Their median annual salary was $118,000 (£94,000).

Concerns over H-1B visas tie into broader immigration debates.

A Pew Research report shows that US immigration rose by 1.6 million in 2023, the largest increase in more than 20 years. Immigrants now comprise over 14% of the population - the highest since 1910. Indians are the second-largest immigrant group - after Mexicans - in the US. Many Americans fear this surge in immigration could harm job prospects or hinder assimilation.

India has also surpassed China as the leading source of international students, with a record 331,602 Indian students in the US in 2023-2024, according to the latest Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange. Most rely on loans, and any visa freeze could potentially devastate family finances.

"My worry is that this [resistance to H-1B visas] could also spark animosity towards the Indians living there. But I can't park my ambitions, put my life on hold and wait for the volatility to subside because it's been like this for years now," Mr Chauhan says.

Efforts to restrict the H-1B programme peaked under Trump's first term, when he signed a 2017 order increasing application scrutiny and fraud detection. Rejection rates soared to 24% in 2018, compared to 5-8% under President Barack Obama and 2-4% under President Joe Biden. The total number of approved H-1B applicants under Biden remained similar to Trump's first term.

"The first Trump administration tightened H-1B visas by increasing denial rates and slowing processing times, making it harder for people to get visas in time. It is unclear whether that will happen again in the second Trump administration," Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration scholar at Cornell Law School, told the BBC.

"Some people like Elon Musk want to preserve the H-1B visas, while other officials in the new administration want to restrict all immigration, including H-1Bs. It is too early to tell which side will prevail."

Indians have a long relationship with the H-1B visa. The programme is also the reason for the "rise of Indian-Americans into the highest educated and highest earning group, immigrant or native in the US", say the authors of The Other One Percent, a study on Indians in America.

US-based researchers Sanjoy Chakravorty, Devesh Kapur and Nirvikar Singh noted that new Indian immigrants spoke different languages and lived in different areas than earlier arrivals. Hindi, Tamil and Telugu speakers grew in number, and Indian-American communities shifted from New York and Michigan to larger clusters in California and New Jersey. The skilled visa programme helped create a "new map of Indian-Americans".

The biggest draw of H-1B visas is the opportunity to earn significantly higher salaries, according to Mr Chauhan. The US offers higher pay, and for someone who is the first in their family to achieve professional qualifications, earning that much can be life-changing. "The fascination with H-1Bs is directly tied to the wage gap between India and the US for the same engineering roles," he says.

But not everybody is happy with the programme. For many, the H-1B programme is an aspirational pathway for permanent residency or a US green card. While H-1B itself is a temporary work visa, it allows visa holders to live and work in the US for up to six years. During this time, many H-1B holders apply for a green card through employment-based immigration categories, typically sponsored by their employers. This takes time.

More than a million Indians, including dependents, are currently waiting in employment-based green card categories. "Getting a green card means signing up for an endless wait for 20-30 years," says Atal Agarwal, who runs a firm in India that uses AI to help find visa options globally for education and jobs.

Mr Agarwal moved to the US after graduating in 2017 and worked at a software company for a few years. He says getting the H-1B visa was fairly straightforward, but then it seemed he had "reached a dead end". He returned to India.

"It's an unstable situation. Your employer has to sponsor you and since the pathway to a green card is so long, you are basically tied to them. If you lose your job, you only get 60 days to find a new one. Every person who is going on merit to the US should have a pathway to a green card within three to five years."

This could be one reason that the visa programme has got tied up with immigration. "H-1B is a high-skilled, worker mobility visa. It is not an immigration visa. But it gets clubbed with immigration and illegal immigration and becomes a sensitive issue," Shivendra Singh, vice president of global trade development at Nasscom, the Indian technology industry trade group, told the BBC.

Many in the US believe the H-1B visa programme is flawed. They cite widespread fraud and abuse, especially by major Indian IT firms which are top recipients of these visas. In October, a US court found Cognizant guilty of discriminating against over 2,000 non-Indian employees between 2013 and 2022, though the company plans to appeal. Last week, Farah Stockman of The New York Times wrote that "for more than a decade, Americans working in the tech industry have been systematically laid off and replaced by cheaper H-1B visa holders".

Mr Chowdhury of Nasscom argues that H-1B visa workers are not underpaid, with their median wages more than double the US median. Companies also invest tens of thousands of dollars in legal and government fees for these costly visas.

Also, it has not been a one-way traffic: Indian tech giants have hired and supported nearly 600,000 American workers and spent over a billion dollars on upskilling nearly three million students across 130 US colleges, according to Mr Singh. The Indian tech industry has prioritised US worker hiring and they bring employees on H-1B visas only when they are unable to find locals with the skills they need, he said.

India is working to ensure the H-1B visa programme remains secure as Trump prepares to take office later this month. "Our countries share a strong and growing economic and technological partnership, and the mobility of skilled professionals is a vital component of this relationship," India's foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told journalists last week.

So what should students aspiring for jobs in the US do? "Any immigration changes in the US will take time to implement. Students should pick the best college for them, wherever that may be. With good immigration counsel, they will be able to figure out what to do," says Mr Yale-Loehr.

For now, despite the political turbulence in the US, Indian interest in H-1B visas remains steadfast, with students resolute in pursuing the American dream.