More than 500 town centres have signed up to Safer Streets, with increased police patrols, stronger prevention and enforcement action by police and councils.
Theft from the person has more than doubled between December 2022 and December 2024 and shop theft is up by more than 60 per cent.
Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales have developed bespoke local action plans with police, businesses and local councils to crackdown on crime this summer. The plans include increased visible town centre policing and ramping up the use of targeted enforcement powers.
The initiative will also support young people with activities across the holidays.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "High streets and town centres are the very heart of our communities. Residents and businesses have the right to feel safe in their towns. But the last government left a surge in shop theft, street crime and anti-social behaviour which has left too many town centres feeling abandoned.
"It’s time to turn this round, that’s why I have called on police forces and councils alike to work together to deliver a summer blitz on town centre crime to send a clear message to those people who bring misery to our towns that their crimes will no longer go unpunished.
"The fact that 500 towns have signed up shows the strength of feeling on this issue.
"Through our Safer Streets Mission and Plan for Change, we are putting officers back on the beat where you can see them and making our town centres safe again."
The Home Office, police, retailers and industry are also launching a new Tackling Retail Crime Together Strategy, which will use shared data to assist in disrupting organised criminal gangs, prolific offenders who are stealing to fund an addiction and ‘opportunist’ offenders.
In Humberside, police are using real-time mapping to deliver dynamic patrols to target emerging problem locations while reassuring local communities and in Devon and Cornwall, police are embedding specialist anti-social behaviour lawyers to fast-track enforcement activity.
Dyfed-Powys Police are targeting seasonal, tourist towns through early police visibility, deterrence and community reassurance and in Nottinghamshire, police have introduced a new diversionary intervention programme for Out of Court Resolutions with conditions attached for problem offenders.
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: "We are on the side of local businesses, and our Plan for Change is helping create the right conditions for our great British high streets to thrive.
"The Safer Streets Summer Initiative will play a vital role in achieving this by keeping footfall high, communities and those that work in them safe, and the economy growing."
Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners Emily Spurrell said: "Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and Deputy Mayors know how much people want to rid their neighbourhoods of criminal and anti-social behaviour (ASB) that blights too many communities. Tackling retail crime and ASB is essential to allowing our town centres to flourish. People have a right to feel safe and shop workers shouldn’t have to defend their stores against regular and organised theft, putting themselves at risk of violence.
"As the public’s voice in policing, we have long understood that neighbourhood policing is key to addressing these issues which is why we welcomed the government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee. It will see thousands more officers on our streets and introduce specialist training for them to operate effectively within local communities, building trust.
"With our local police forces and other partners in support of the Safer Streets Summer initiative, PCCs and Deputy Mayors will be working harder than ever to target criminal and anti-social behaviour so that people feel safe and have pride in where they live and work. We are determined to deliver real and demonstrable change so that communities and town centres can thrive and prosper."
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