• Westminster City Council will receive £289,600 of new funding from the latest £50 million round of the Conservative Government’s Safer Streets Fund.
• The extra funding will go towards police forces, councils, and community groups–providing extra CCTV and streetlighting, protecting women and girls, and tackling neighbourhood crime.
• The fourth round brings the total awarded through the Safer Streets Fund and the Safety of Women at Night Fund to £125 million–making our streets safer and preventing violence against women and girls.

Nickie Aiken, Member of Parliament for the Cities of London and Westminster, has welcomed the additional £289,600 awarded to Westminster City Council through the fourth round of the Conservative Government’s Safer Streets Fund, which will help to make streets safer through projects to crack down on neighbourhood crimes and prevent violence against women and girls.

This additional funding, part of the £50million from the latest round of the Safer Streets Fund, will go towards measures proven to cut crime, including extra CCTV and streetlighting in communities alongside engagement work to change attitudes and behaviours to prevent crimes being committed.

Nickie has welcomed the launch of the fourth round of the Safer Streets Fund which has now opened, providing another opportunity for police forces, local councils, the British Transport Police, and eligible community groups across England and Wales to bid from a fund of £50million.

This round of funding will invest in essential measures, including improved street lighting, and it will encourage police and community groups to deliver focused plans to help make women and girls feel safer on our streets, as well as projects which will change attitudes and behaviours in local communities.

The Safer Streets Fund builds on the Conservative Government’s existing measures to keep our streets safe. Including: almost 14,000 more police officers recruited across England and Wales, increasing police funding to almost £17 billion, and preventing 49,000 violent offences across England and Wales since 2019 through Violence Reduction Units-protecting the public and breaking the cycle of crime.

Nickie said,

No one should feel afraid while walking the streets of the Two Cities, yet for so many people, particularly women and girls, feeling uncomfortable or even unsafe in public spaces has become an all-too-common occurrence. 

That is why I am delighted Westminster City Council has received £289,600 through our Safer Street Fund, which will deliver necessary measures such as extra CCTV and street lighting alongside engagement projects to change behaviours and prevent crimes being committed across Westminster.

Alongside our pledge to get more police on the streets, with almost 14,000 recruited in England and Wales–this investment will ensure people feel safe and secure in Westminster as we Build Back Safer.

Notes to Editors

The Conservative Government is giving the police the powers and resources they need to cut crime by:

• Giving neighbourhoods the money they need to ‘target harden’ their homes and streets through the Safer Streets Programme, making it harder to commit crimes. The Conservative Government is investing £150 million through the Safer Streets Fund over the next three years into community projects to prevent crime–with a focus on neighbourhood crime, anti-social behaviour, and violence against women and girls (Home Office, News Story, 25 July 2022, link).
• Recruiting 20,000 new police officers, helping to keep our streets safe. The Conservative Government has already recruited 13,790 new officers, with an extra £540 million being invested to complete this recruitment (HO, Official statistics, 27 July 2022, link; HMT, Autumn and Budget Spending Review 2021, 27 October 2021, link).
• Introducing its Beating Crime Plan, delivering the most comprehensive strategy of its kind yet. This plan is the Conservative Government’s blueprint for cutting crime, and by combining prevention, deterrence, and enforcement, it will put victims first and restore confidence in our justice system (UK Government, Beating Crime Plan, 27 July 2021, link)
• Investing almost £17 billion of funding in our police, giving them the resources they need to make the streets safer. Police funding is £16.9 billion for 2022-2023, including–for the first time–over £1 billion for Counter Terror policing, as well as £1.4 billion for tackling national priorities such as county lines drugs, child sexual abuse, and modern slavery, and £796 million for Police and Crime Commissioners (Hansard, 9 February 2022, Vol.708 Col.989, link)
• Preventing 49,000 violent offences across England and Wales since 2019 through Violence Reduction Units and ‘hotspot policing’, protecting the public and breaking the cycle of crime. Areas that rolled out VRUs and intensive police patrols in violence hotspots saw 49,000fewer incidents of violence, compared with areas that did not. This resulted in an estimated £385million avoided in associated costs for victims and society (HO, News story, 1 April 2022, link).
• Launching its £100 million VAWG Strategy, making our streets safer for women and girls. The Strategy will support victims by launching a 24/7 sexual assault helpline and VAWG Transport Champions, while making our society safer with revised educational guidelines and a £5 million Safety of Women at Night fund (HO, News Story, 21 July 2021, link).