The Government’s safer streets mission includes the neighbourhood policing guarantee, which this week has been boosted with a £100 million additional investment. That places a renewed focus on preventing the criminality plaguing the streets - particularly in town centres - with visible, accessible officers that will deter offending and reassure communities they will be kept safe. Every neighbourhood will have a named, contactable police officer in their community, dealing with local issues, as the PM puts more police on the street at the heart of his mission to tackle crime.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer says: “The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will deliver 13,000 extra neighbourhood police, visible on your streets, cracking down on anti-social behaviour. A named, contactable officer in every community. A relief to millions of people scared to walk their streets they call home. But it’s a pledge that is only possible because we are matching investment with reform; standardising procurement, streamlining specialist services like forensics, and ending the madness of 43 forces purchasing their own cars and uniforms.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper added: “Our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee is about more than just increasing numbers. It's about rebuilding the vital connection between the public and the police. This marks a return to the founding principles of British policing - where officers are part of the communities they serve. Through this visible, responsive police presence in every neighbourhood, we will restore the trust and partnership that lies at the heart of keeping our communities safe.”
Paddy Lillis – Usdaw general secretary says: “There is an epidemic of retail crime; shoplifting has doubled since the pandemic and is still rising, with a 29% increase over the last year. After 14 years of neglect and repeated refusals to deal with the issue from the last Conservative Government, we are pleased to see that Labour is making this a priority and delivering the measures our members and all retail workers desperately need.
“Labour’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will deliver 13,000 additional officers patrolling our streets. We also look forward to the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill, which will bring in new Respect Orders to tackle repeat offenders, a much-needed protection of retail workers’ law and end the indefensible £200 threshold for prosecuting shoplifters, which has effectively become an open invitation to retail criminals.
“Interim results from Usdaw’s latest annual survey found that one in seven retail workers had suffered incidents of violence, threats and abuse that were triggered by theft from shops and armed robbery. Having to deal with repeated and persistent offences can cause issues beyond the incident itself, like anxiety, fear and physical harm to retail workers. Our members are clearly saying ‘enough is enough’ and Labour is delivering.”
The six milestones in Labour’s “plan for change” are:
- Delivering higher, real, household disposable income and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita by the end of the Parliament, as part of the goal of having the highest sustained economic growth in the G7 group of wealthy democracies.
- Building 1.5 million homes in England and fast-tracking planning decisions on at least 150 major economic infrastructure projects.
- Meeting the NHS standard of 92% of patients in England waiting no longer than 18 weeks for elective treatment.
- Putting police back on the beat with a named officer for every community and 13,000 additional officers, PCSOs and special constables in neighbourhood roles in England and Wales.
- Getting a record 75% of five-year-olds in England ready to learn when they start school.
- Putting the UK “on track” to at least 95% clean power by 2030.
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions in the TUC and the UK's fifth biggest trade union with around 360,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades www.usdaw.org.uk
Crime in England and Wales statistics show that in the year to March 2021, there were 228,250 police-recorded incidents of shoplifting. That rose by 106% to 469,788 in the latest stats for the year to June 2024. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/policeforceareadatatables
Interim results of Usdaw’s 2024 survey, based on 4,073 responses, show that: 69% were verbally abused, 45% were threatened. 17% of shop workers had been assaulted. Of those who were abused, threatened or assaulted, 70% said that shoplifting was the trigger, and their assessment of the underlying issues was 64% related to a drug and/or alcohol addiction. The final results of the survey will be published in March 2025.
Usdaw’s Freedom From Fear Campaign seeks to prevent violence, threats and abuse against workers by engaging the public, shop workers and the Government. www.usdaw.org.uk/Campaigns/Freedom-From-Fear
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Bluesky @usdawunion.bsky.social and Twitter/X @UsdawUnion