Mayor announces first-ever fund, consisting of £15.6m, to work with women and girls to improve safety in public spaces

• Mayor announces first of its kind, major new, funding to help make public spaces across London safer as he brands the ever-evolving international epidemic of violence against women and girls (VAWG) ‘a global disgrace that shames us all’

• Mayor has now overseen a record-breaking £318m of investment and pioneered a whole society approach to tackle VAWG

• The experiences of women and girls will be used to help improve the design of parks, streets and other public areas across London through the new £15.6m Mayoral fund

• Mayor announces first-ever fund of its kind as he publishes a new wide-ranging London strategy to respond to the evolving threat of VAWG backed by an investment of more than £37m

 

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, today branded the global and national epidemic of violence against women and girls (VAWG) ‘a disgrace that shames us all’, as he unveiled bold new plans backed up by record investment to work with women and girls to help transform public spaces across London.

 

The Mayor has overseen a record investment of £318m to tackle the evolving threat of VAWG since he became Mayor, but in the wake of rising tech-enabled crimes, toxic influencers promoting violent, misogynistic content and the shocking case of murderer and sexual predator Simon Levy, Sadiq is clear that further action needs to be taken to address this global issue.

 

That’s why he today published a new wide-ranging strategy^[1] to build on his ground-breaking work to tackle VAWG through prevention programmes and safety improvements, designed to support victims and stop perpetrators. It includes a first-ever £15.6m fund that will give women and girls a voice in transforming public spaces.

 

The new fund – which will be a collaboration between City Hall, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and Transport for London (TfL) – will provide support to local authorities to make public spaces safer, using the experience of women and girls who know their area best to help in the design of parks, streets and other areas in their communities.

 

This could include a range of improvements such as better lighting and CCTV, removing blind spots and opening up spaces to make places feel safer, more inclusive and better used by a wider range of people.

 

It builds on a successful trial in 2024 where MOPAC and TfL worked with women and girls across five boroughs to better understand their safety issues and how their experience could promote better design in the future.

 

Across the UK, 86 per cent of women and girls aged 18-24 have experienced harassment in public spaces and research has shown that Londoners feel less safe in town centres, pubs and clubs, parks and open spaces, and on public transport, than they do in other environments such as at home or at work.^[2] 

 

The Mayor has already overseen a record-breaking £318m of investment to strengthen action against VAWG perpetrators; support victims and survivors; and pioneer a whole society, long-term preventative approach to tackling misogynistic beliefs and behaviours that contribute to VAWG. Since the publication of his last VAWG strategy in 2022, London has seen improvements in the police investigation and prosecution of rape, an increase in the percentage of women who feel safe walking alone in their local area after dark, [3], and a coordinated approach to prevention and early intervention including the work of London's Violence Reduction Unit.

 

The Mayor’s bold new strategy today sets out how he will extend this work together with Government, the Met and partners across the capital to prevent VAWG, support victims and survivors, and stop perpetrators and hold them to account.

 

The new strategy is backed by a further investment of more than £37m. Alongside the new fund to improve public spaces, this funding includes:

 

• £6m to tackle the alarming rise in tech abuse crimes^[4], where mobile phones, social media, and connected devices such as doorbell cameras, are being used by perpetrators to target, harass and abuse women and girls – as well as exacerbate controlling behaviour within domestic abuse.
• £6m to support a third round of the Mayor’s VAWG Grassroots Fund^[5], providing thousands of the most vulnerable victims and survivors of all forms of VAWG with access to legal advice, counselling and other key services through local community organisations.
• A new £3m investment to design and commission a new specialist service to help victims and survivors to improve their skills and remove barriers to employment so they can become financially independent of their abusers.
• £3m to the Mayor’s Violence Reduction Unit as part of a city-wide approach to tackling online harms affecting young people with targeted support and mentoring for girls and young women affected or at risk of online misogyny, exploitation and abuse, and interventions to take on the impact of harmful online influencers by creating opportunities for boys and young men though training for fathers, sessions in schools on masculinity and resilience, and through footballing mentors. ^[6]
• £2.4m to support victims and survivors of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and grooming gangs by expanding advocacy and therapeutic interventions, as part of ongoing work by Sadiq to ensure all victims of CSE have access to the care, attention and specialist support services they need. ^[7]
• £1m to tackle the impact of the manosphere and online hate, including public awareness campaigns that challenge misogyny and supporting educational programmes to showcase positive role models.
• £100,000 to extend the Mayor’s independent legal advice pilot which is providing hundreds of survivors of sexual violence in London with free, one-to-one, legal advice.^[8]

 

This funding complements the wide-ranging work taking place as part of the Mayor’s public-health approach to tackling VAWG. That has included supporting the Met to go after the worst perpetrators of VAWG, challenging and supporting the Met to reform, improving the experience of victims and survivors in the criminal justice system, strengthening the protection of children from exploitation and harm in all its forms, delivering innovative GPS tagging programmes to ensure the behaviour of men is the focus for change, and delivering the multi-award winning ‘Have a Word’ and ‘Say Maaate to a Mate’ campaigns to challenge misogyny.

 

The Mayor will launch his new strategy in East London and see an area women and girls from the local area helped design with safety features in mind. The designs include consistent lighting, dedicated open spaces and loungers to encourage groups to meet and enjoy the space, managed landscaping to ensure visibility and routes are open, specified safe havens and place markers which improve feelings of safety.

 

Sadiq will also meet with survivors, practitioners and VAWG sector experts and saw some of the safety features that were inspired by women and girls as they discussed the evolving challenges of VAWG they are facing. 

 

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: “My goal as Mayor is to make every woman and girl in London safer – and feel safer – in our city, which is why I have overseen a record-breaking £318m to tackle VAWG, addressing its root causes and supporting victims.

 

“We have seen real progress from this work, but the epidemic of violence against women and girls is a global disgrace that shames us all. What so many women and girls have had to endure and continue to endure is unacceptable and every aspect of society has a part to play in changing this.

 

“That’s why I have launched a new strategy to accelerate our efforts and adapt to the changing threats that women face online, at home and on our streets. This includes a first-ever new fund that will see us work with women and girls to help transform public spaces across our capital. By giving a voice to women and girls who know their local areas best, we can work with local authorities to make these spaces safer and more welcoming at all times of day.

 

“Despite the challenges, VAWG truly is preventable and I am committed to working with the government, the Met, charities, as well as local, national and global partners, to ensure that every woman and girl can participate fully in the life of our great city, without experiencing or fearing harassment, abuse or violence.”

 

Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime Kaya Comer-Schwartz said: “All women should be safe, and feel safe, to go about their lives at all times of day and night, and online. That’s why we continue to work closely with partners to deliver bold and innovative programmes that make a real difference for women and girls in our capital, including the work we're doing to empower women to shape London's public spaces. In developing this new strategy we have listened carefully to the experiences of women and girls to help us go further than ever before and I’m proud that we will be working with them to make our public spaces safer. Over the next three years, we will continue to do all we can to prevent VAWG by tackling its underlying causes, holding perpetrators to account and ensuring victims and survivors are supported.”

 

London’s Victims Commissioner, Andrea Simon, said: “In my role as Victims’ Commissioner, I routinely hear from victims and survivors about the many ways abuse and harassment continues to profoundly shape the lives of women and girls in London, and I welcome a relentless focus on addressing the root causes of men’s violence wherever it takes place. London needs this holistic and ambitious vision for tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG), and I am pleased that the strategy acknowledges how important specialist support is for victims’ recovery, as well as having a focus on preventing the spread of harmful misogynistic attitudes and responding to the growing scale of technology-facilitated abuse. I will work closely with the Mayor and Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime to ensure this approach delivers meaningful change for victims and keeps their voices and the expertise of frontline services at the forefront.”

 

Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Kevin Southworth said: “Violence against women and girls has no place in our society. We have transformed our approach to VAWG wherever it happens - strengthening our response to victims, relentlessly pursuing offenders and working closely with partners to drive change. That focus is delivering results, with arrests and charges for rape offences more than doubling over the last year in London. But we know there is more to do, that lasting change cannot be achieved by policing alone, and collectively we must do all we can to prevent violence against women and girls in the first place.

“We welcome this investment to make public spaces safer for women and girls. Creating environments where people feel safe not only helps prevent harm, but it supports policing by making it easier to protect victims, identify offenders and build safer communities. 

“Progress over recent years gives us a strong foundation, but now is the time to build on it. We will continue to work with partners across London so we can all play a part in creating a city where women and girls are free to live without fear”.

 

Siwan Hayward, TfL’s Director of Security, Policing and Enforcement, said: "The safety of women and girls is an absolute priority for us and their experiences are invaluable in helping us understand the barriers they face when moving around the capital and using public spaces. 

“We've listened to more than 3,000 women, girls and parents across London to better understand their experiences when travelling and we're pleased this investment will help turn those insights into practical improvements, from better lighting to redesigning spaces that can feel isolated and hidden. We look forward to working with our partners in the London Boroughs to see how we can implement this into future planning of our transport network.”

  

Nahar Choudhury, chief executive of Solace, said: “The Mayor’s new VAWG strategy rightly recognises that supporting survivors means addressing the wide range of factors contributing to violence against women and girls and the importance of bringing together a range stakeholders and agencies to play their part in ending this epidemic across London.

 

"We're especially heartened to see dedicated investment in work to challenge the manosphere and engage boys and young men as part of the solution, as well as specialist services supporting girls and young women. Women tell us every day that financial dependence on perpetrators is a huge barrier to leaving, so any investment in supporting women into sustainable financial independence will truly change lives.

 

"Solace looks forward to continuing our work with the Mayor and partners across London to ensure this investment translates into real safety and independence for survivors."

Jen Reed, Head of Policy, UCL Gender + Tech Research Lab: "We are very pleased that UCL’s research has helped inform this important strategy to create safer environments for women and girls, as well as recognising how the issue is evolving such as through technology-facilitated threats, and hope that both the Strategy and new funding will make a real difference to the lives of Londoners."

A survivor of VAWG who wishes to stay anonymous, said: "As someone with lived experience of VAWG, I welcome this investment and I'm glad to see funding directed at critical and life-saving services.

“Collaboration with survivors and VAWG charities is key: it’s great to see this in the Mayor’s considerations of public spaces and would be amazing if this practice was extended throughout every strand of tackling VAWG.

“Police response to cases is another key area I’m hopeful the Mayor’s office will consider seriously. This remains a major issue requiring further scrutiny and improvement is essential if survivors are to have the confidence to report in the first place."

 

Shazia Hussain, CEO at London Legacy Development Corporation, the organisation behind Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park said: “As a thriving London destination that is continuously raising the bar for gender inclusive urban design we are honoured that the Mayor has chosen to launch his new VAWG strategy at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

“Whether it be our Waterden Green Space for Teenage Girls developed in collaboration with our Elevate youth board, our Women and Girls’ Safety Charter or our Inclusive Design Handbook, we are committed to making the Park as safe as possible for everyone, but especially for women who we know are more vulnerable to certain types of crime.

“The changes that we’ve made here wouldn’t have been possible without the many local women and girls who’ve shared their ideas, suggestions and feedback which have been applied to planning, design and decision-making processes across the Park. If we want to create spaces that truly work for women and girls, we must continue to amplify and encourage their voices.”

 

Bhavini Ghedia, Chair of Elevate Board, said: “Through Elevate, we've had a direct role in shaping Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park into a place where women and girls can and should feel safer, more welcome and more represented. From lighting and planting to public artwork and places to gather, we’ve helped influence how the Park is designed and experienced.

 

"It’s vital that women and girls have a voice in shaping the spaces they use every day, so it feels especially significant that the Mayor is launching his strategy to tackle violence against women and girls here on the Park. It’s encouraging to see that commitment matched by meaningful investment in making public spaces safer and I hope this is just the beginning of continued collaboration with communities and young people.”