�Havering has suffered from years of poor investment and council leadership “does not do much”, according to the former London Mayor Ken Livingstone.

His comments came during an interview with the Recorder after a visit to Romford Labour Party last week as part of his campaign to run for London Mayor next year.

He said: “Havering has had a very unimaginative council leadership that does not do much.

“They basically rest on what is already there and Havering needs to be invested in.

“Most of what you see in the borough are buildings from during the war and it is begining to look as if it is aging.”

During his visit, Mr Livingstone who was defeated by Boris Johnson in 2008, spoke of his plans to expand the Docklands Light Railway into Rainham.

The proposals were first suggested in 2007, but were scrapped by Mr Johnson.

Mr Livingstone says he would reinstate the plans if elected.

He said: “A lot of Rainham is wonderful, it has lots of beautiful wildlife and it should be a natural area for people to have a good time.

“But this is only going to happen if it is easy to get to. I will reinstate the DLR plans so that people won’t have to go far to get into Rainham.

“People want to be able to get on a train to take them to where they are going.

“It’s a real problem generally in outer London in that it suffers from very poor rail links and we need to look at getting transport links to and from the suburbs.”

Mr Livingstone will be returning to Havering this month when he officially launches his election campaign. He said: “It is a chance for people to tell me what they think about things in Havering.”