The latest £60 million round of the Safer Streets Fund, which will run for 18-months across the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years, launches today focussing on targeting neighbourhood crime, violence against women and girls, and anti-social behaviour.
Since its launch in 2020, Sussex PCC has received £4m through four rounds of the Safer Streets Fund. This has included funding for interventions that target Neighbourhood Crime (target hardening, CCTV, improved fencing, alleygating), anti-social behaviour (street patrols, community training, environmental changes, community safety partners funding), Violence Against Women and Girls (youth education, one touch reporting app, street harassment workers) and anti-social behaviour (support officers for victims, environmental changes, resources for community safety partners).
This latest round of Safer Street Funding will ensure a fairer distribution of funds across all police force areas in England and Wales, with the same amount of funding - £1.4m across the 18 months of round 5 – going to each PCC, including Sussex PCC.
It will be for PCCs to determine the particular projects they want to support in their areas. Round five will retain the primary focus of tackling neighbourhood crime, violence against women and girls and anti-social behaviour.
This funding takes the total investment in the Safer Streets Fund since its launch in 2020 to £180m.
This funding is providing support to local areas across England and Wales which are suffering disproportionately and persistently from crime and ASB to introduce initiatives aimed at stopping offences happening in the first place. The funding complements wider ambitious Government initiatives to cut crime and anti-social behaviour.
The Government takes ASB very seriously, as the Prime Minister set out in his speech at the start of the year, and we are committed to ensuring that it is properly tackled.
Commenting, Mims Davies MP, said:
No one should feel afraid while out and about in Mid Sussex 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'm delighted that Sussex has received £1.5 million through the Safer Streets Fund towards tackling anti social behaviour and violence against women and girls.
The funding will create a Task Force to tackle anti-social behaviour and violence against women and girls across Sussex, responding to widespread community concerns shared frequently with the PCC.