The Safer Streets Fund will open this week for bids
from police and crime commissioners (PCCs) across
England and Wales to fund initiatives aimed at stopping
these offences happening in the first place.
The fund is specifically designed for areas that need
to tackle theft, robbery and burglary – known as
acquisitive crimes.
Policing Minister,
said:
We are determined to cut crime and make our streets
safer. That’s why we are backing the police with more
resources and recruiting 20,000 new officers.
This fund will help prevent people falling victim to
crimes which can have a real impact on a community,
like burglaries or theft.
Association of Police and Crime Commissioners lead for
prevention, said:
I welcome the launch of this fund which will help to
tackle acquisitive crime by investing in a more
preventative approach.
Preventing crime in the first place is better for the
public and reduces demand on policing. We want to
ensure that this funding is used to drive down crime
in the most effective way, including through
targeting key local hotspots.
Police and crime commissioners, in formulating bids,
will work closely with local partners to identify
those measures that are most likely to make our
communities safer.
PCCs can use the fund to improve neighbourhoods by
increasing street lighting, installing better locks and
gating alleyways.
They can also invest the money in other types of crime
prevention, such as training community wardens, and
delivering local crime prevention advice to residents
or Neighbourhood Watch schemes.
PCCs will be expected to make use of local police force
data and to use toolkits provided by the College of
Policing, in partnership with other experts, to
understand where the funding can have the biggest
impact and what interventions will work best in a local
area.
Successful areas will receive grants of up to £550,000.
As they are rolled out, each initiative will be
assessed to help inform future government investments.
The Safer Streets Fund forms part of the government’s
concerted action to tackle crime. On Wednesday 22
January the Home Office announced the biggest increase
in funding for the police system in a decade.
The amount of funding available to the policing system
for 2020 to 2021 will increase by more than £1.1
billion, totalling £15.2 billion, should police and
crime commissioners (PCCs) take full advantage of
flexibility to set the police precept. This will allow
the government to deliver on the people’s priorities
and recruit the first wave of 20,000 additional police
officers by the end of March 2021.
