London mayor ploughs £3.2m into combatting youth violence
Fiona Simpson
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
A new multi-million pound investment in London’s violence reduction unit (VRU) will fund crucial early intervention programmes for young people at risk of becoming involved in crime, Sadiq Khan has said.
The VRU was set up by Khan last year and brings together specialists from health, police, local government, probation and community organisations to tackle violent crime and its underlying causes across the capital.
The mayor of London announced his intention to invest an additional £3.2m in the unit this year and in future years.
He also pledged an additional £5m one-off payment for the unit as part of his 2019/20 budget.
Khan said: “London’s violence reduction unit is leading our public health approach to tackling the complex causes of crime, and increasing the unit’s ongoing annual budget from £1.8m to £5m will allow it to invest in more projects and programmes to make crucial early interventions in a young person’s life".
The investment will come from a proposed council tax increase, City Hall said.
The mayor’s share of council tax bills are proposed to increase overall by 1.99 per cent - £6.41 a year, or 12p a week, in cash terms for an average Band D council tax payer.
“There is continuing uncertainty over the government’s funding plans, which impacts our ability to recruit the police officers London needs. Without sustained government investment in policing to reverse ministers’ decade of cuts, I am once again left with little choice but to raise council tax in order to tackle violent crime,” Khan added.
In November, the mayor announced that schools in areas of London blighted by youth violence were to be handed £4.7m through the unit to prevent children from being excluded and to better protect them after school.
"The best way to prevent crime is before it occurs. We need a joined-up approach with local authorities given more responsibility over school exclusions and off-rolling to ensure they aren't misused," Khan said at the time.
In October, a report by the all-party parliamentary group on knife crime raised concerns about the risks that excluded children face from criminal gangs.
The group called for a government review to find out why excluded children do not get the full-time education they are entitled to. Schools should also be more accountable for pupils they exclude, said MPs.
