Every time a young Londoner dies as a result of violent crime, it is absolutely heart-breaking and leaves families and communities devastated.

After ten years of austerity and millions of pounds slashed from council budgets, crime prevention programmes have been scaled back and youth centres that provided a safe refuge have closed. Tackling crime doesn’t just mean more police on our streets, it also requires crucial early intervention work, something I’ve consistently called for in Parliament, and ensuring schools and youth services are adequately resourced to help tackle the cycle of violence.

Here are some of the recent meetings I have attended to discuss crime and safety and some of the issues affecting our community:

• I have been attending virtual meetings to primarily discuss community safety. This includes the Wood Green Summit 2021, in partnership with Wood Green Business Improvement District (BID).
• In May 2021, I met with the Chair of Governors and Head at Highgate School following the concerning claims of a culture where sexual abuse and harassment allegations were not being adequately addressed.
• Throughout the pandemic, I have held regular meetings with the Police Borough Commander. These meetings are an opportunity to discuss some of the concerns and issues raised by constituents around policing activity and community safety. For example, in our last meeting we talked about crime around Duckett’s Common/Turnpike Lane, religious hate crime, and the robbery and mugging of school children travelling to and from school.
• In January, I met with Haringey’s Borough Commander where amongst other things we discussed Covid enforcement, local crime figures, ward policing ward policing and reforms to the Independent Advisory Group which ensures community priorities are reflected in Haringey’s approach to policing.
• In March 2020, I held a public meeting alongside David Lammy MP, the Borough Commander, local ward officers and Crime Stoppers, to discuss particular problems of crime and ASB around Duckett’s Common and Turnpike Lane.

More widely, I work very closely with London Mayor Sadiq Khan on this issue, as we are both fully committed to investing in young people across the city and implementing measures so that they do not have to turn to crime to make a living. You can read all about Sadiq’s plans on targeting violence, as well as how he is working with schools and local businesses to best support young people, on the London Assembly website.

In Parliament this year, I submitted a Written Question on the topic of recorded crime and action:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level (a) youth crime and (b) violent crime in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency in the last three years; and what (i) steps she is taking and (ii) resources she is allocating to tackle those crimes.

You can see the full response here.

This summer, Labour want to hear your thoughts on safety in our area, what your priorities are and, crucially, how you think they should be tackled.  Take the survey now at https://labour.org.uk/crimesurvey.

If the Government is serious about reducing violent crime nationwide, it must provide the additional funding, as consistently requested by London Mayor Sadiq Khan and the Metropolitan Police.  But that doesn’t simply mean more police.  It means social programmes to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour and offering real support to victims. We want to drive down crime and antisocial behaviour, tackle the root causes of the problems that communities face and ensure criminals are brought to justice.