Additional £3.2m for London’s Violence Reduction Unit

Sadiq Khan has announced that he intends to invest an additional £3.2 million in the capital’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) this year and in future years.

The Mayor of London set up the VDU last year, bringing together specialists from health, police, local government, probation and community organisations to tackle violent crime and its underlying causes. Khan invested £1.8 million per year in the VRU in his his 2019-20 budget, alongside an additional one-off £5 million in new funds allocated from business rates.

The newly=published 2020-21 draft budget proposes an increase to the annual investment to £5 million for the next financial year, reallocating funding from the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) and the Greater London Authority to ensure the VRU has the resources to continue leading the public-health approach to tackling the complex causes of crime.

Khan is also provisionally proposing to increase his share of council tax bills 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. Of the Mayor’s proposed council tax increase for 2020-21, £4.85 (9p a week) will go directly to the Metropolitan Police, which will generate an additional £30 million towards policing and tackling crime in the capital.

Khan said: “This budget sets out how I propose to continue delivering my plans to help ensure that all Londoners get the opportunities that our wonderful city gave to me. 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 £1.8 million to £5 million will allow it to invest in more projects and programmes to make crucial early interventions in a young person’s life.

“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.”