The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today announced his intention to invest a further £37m to help prevent violence, support victims of crime, and provide positive opportunities for young
people. The Mayor’s top priority remains keeping Londoners safe and this is why he is proposing a permanent increase in funding to invest a new package of £23.2m every year in violence prevention programmes, tackling violence against women and girls, and better supporting victims of crime. As part of this, £13.2m will be specifically focused on work to reduce teen homicides and serious violence. In addition, this package includes funds to help provide a swifter service to Londoners through boosting the Met’s contact centre, and funds to tackle illegal drug use which is a key driver of crime and violence in London.
In addition, Sadiq is committed to reducing violence against women and girls, and this new package of funding would also include investment of £5m every year which would go towards supporting victims and survivors and tackling the perpetrators of these appalling crimes, as part of supporting the Mayor’s refreshed violence against women and girls strategy.
Sadiq recognises the worrying impact the pandemic has had on young Londoners and has proposed a further £14m investment in projects to support better opportunities for young people.
The Mayor has announced this new funding ahead of publishing his final draft budget for the Greater London Authority (GLA) Group for 2022-23 on Wednesday. The budget takes into account that council tax and business rates returns now received from local authorities are higher than were forecast in the Mayor’s draft budget proposals last month.
The Mayor is continuing to be tough on crime by investing a record £1bn over the last five years in policing, putting 1,300 more officers on the streets of the capital. He is also being tough on the complex causes of crime by investing in programmes to address the factors which increase the likelihood of someone becoming involved in, or a victim of violence. This includes deep-rooted social and economic issues such as poverty, inequality, high unemployment, school exclusions, poor mental health and a lack of youth services. Sadiq has already invested in community projects across London through the Young Londoners Fund to create more positive opportunities for 110,000 young Londoners in need.
Figures show that violence was falling in London before the pandemic, and over the past year knife crime, youth violence and gun crime have come down further. Since the start of the Mayoralty in 2016, serious violent crime such as knife crime resulting in injury is down 15 per cent, gun crime is down 25 per cent, and under-25 knife crime has reduced 27 per cent. But the Mayor is clear there is much more to do to stop young lives being lost to senseless violence, and to prevent violence from happening in the first place.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “As Mayor, keeping Londoners safe will always be my number one priority. I refuse to accept that violence is inevitable and I’m more committed than ever to delivering a positive future for young Londoners and long-term reductions in violence that we all want to see. That is why I intend to continue investing in tackling the underlying causes of crime - poverty, deprivation and lack of opportunities for young Londoners. It is also why I propose investing much more in deterrence and supporting victims, including victims of violence against women and girls.
“In my budget I have set out proposals for new funding that would be focused on addressing these issues. Not only supporting programmes to prevent violence but providing young Londoners with positive things to do in order to help stop senseless violence taking young lives in our city.” Photo by DAVID HOLT, Wikimedia commons.