- Announcement brings total invested in tackling violence this year to more than £100m
- New money to be invested in tackling consequences of school exclusions and providing positive opportunities for thousands of young Londoners
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today announced he is directing £55.5m of new funding into tackling the complex underlying causes of violent crime in the capital.
Sadiq has made tackling violent crime his number-one priority and today set out a comprehensive package of new funding for 2020/2021 on hard-hitting programmes to help young Londoners turn their backs on crime, and preventative measures to provide positive opportunities for disadvantaged young people.
It brings the total additional amount the Mayor has invested in tackling violent crime in this year’s budget to £100.6m, which includes £45.1m going to the Met Police, some of which will be used to bring forward 600 extra police officers for 2020/21, on top of the 1,300 police officers already being funded by City Hall.
Youth services have been on the frontline of a near-decade of damaging Government cuts, with figures showing that there has been a 46 per cent reduction in national funding for youth services in the capital since 2011.* Sadiq is leading the way by being tough on the causes of crime and is determined to continue supporting young Londoners.
As part of this new package of measures to tackle the complex causes of crime, the Mayor is investing:
- £25m of new money to build on the Young Londoners Fund – providing new funding for projects and programmes that provide positive opportunities for disadvantaged young people and help steer them away from crime
- A big increase in funding for the Violence Reduction Unit initiatives, with new moves including peer-mentoring programmes for young people in Pupil Referral Units to help tackle the consequences of school exclusions, and funding for community groups as part of a hyper-localised approach to violence reduction
- Increased investment in programmes to tackle ‘county lines’ and to disrupt the drugs market in the capital, as well as funding to target persistent offenders and domestic abuse perpetrators as part of a joined-up approach to reducing offending
While Ministers have finally started partially to reverse cuts to the police, Government funding for the Met still does not cover the number of police officers lost since 2010. As a result, the Mayor took the difficult decision to increase his share of council bills directed to the Met by £10 a year from April.
The Mayor is – for the third year running – diverting an uplift in business rates in programmes to tackle the complex causes of crime. He is using every financial lever at his disposal to invest in youth and preventative services and will be working in partnerships with others to support youth centres, schools and sports activities.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “My plan to tackle violent crime in London means being both tough on crime, and tough on the underlying causes of crime.
“The causes of violent crime are complex and deep-rooted, but have been made far worse by huge Government cuts to the police, schools, youth services and local councils.
“I have already taken the difficult decision to increase council tax to help pay for 1,300 more police officers, and am today launching a new £55.5m package to tackle the root causes of crime by reducing school exclusions, providing more mentors for young people creating more positive opportunities for disadvantaged young Londoners. This means that more than £100m will be invested in tacking violence this year.”
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Notes to editors
*Between 2011/12 and 2018/19, 46 per cent of funding for London’s youth services was withdrawn. A reduction in police officer numbers has impacted on the police’s ability to disrupt and deter violence: https://www.london.gov.uk/city-hall-blog/new-report-shows-violence-cost…
The £45m Young Londoners Fund was created by Sadiq in 2018 as a means to support education, sport and cultural activities for young people to help tackle knife crime and youth violence, which has been rising across the country since 2014. It particularly seeks to help young Londoners who might otherwise be at risk of getting caught up in crime by providing aspirational and positive activities to help them reach their true potential.
The Mayor announced in December that he intends to invest an additional £3.2m in London’s Violence Reduction Unit this year and in future years. In his 2019-20 budget, the Mayor invested £1.8m per year in the VRU, starting this financial year, together with an additional one-off £5m in new funds allocated from business rates.
In his final draft budget for 2020-21, to be published on Friday, the Mayor is proposing to increase his ongoing annual investment to £5m for the next financial year. Today’s announcement is a commitment to direct further funding to the VRU to invest in peer-mentoring programmes for young people in Pupil Referral Units to help tackle the consequences of school exclusions, and funding for community groups as part of a hyper-localised approach to violence reduction.
The Mayor of London’s 2020-21 draft Council Tax requirement is £1.011 billion – this being the total sum forecast to be collected from Londoners to fund GLA services. Under the proposal the total GLA precept will be increased from £320.51 to £332.07 a year (Band D household) for residents of the 32 boroughs – an overall increase of £11.56.
This equates to a Policing Precept increase from £242.13 to £252.13 and a non-Policing Precept from £78.38 to £79.94 a year – the revenues raised from the increase in the non-policing element will be allocated to the London Fire Brigade’s budget.
The Mayor’s council tax precept comprises £767m to support the Metropolitan Police service, £169m for the London Fire Brigade and £75m for other services such as transport and the GLA itself.
This proposed council tax increase and other proposals are subject to approval by the London Assembly at its meeting on Monday 24th February.