Boris Johnson has been warned to protect the area's pubs or risk damaging to communities.

Steve O'Connell, Sutton and Croydon's member of the Greater London Assembly, has written to the Mayor of London to call on him to recognise the role pubs play in communities and do more to protect them.

He welcomed some measures Mr Johnson has made to protect pubs but said more can be done including making it harder for developers to turn vacant pubs into other things and recognising the value of having a pub in walking distance of community centres.