News story

Police and local authorities given extra £23.5 million for safer streets 

Successful bids from the third round of the Safer Streets Fund announced - police and crime commissioners and local authorities to receive an extra £23.5 million.

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

Police forces and local authorities across England and Wales, are to receive a share of £23.5 million to make public spaces safer for all through projects to help women and girls feel safer on our streets as part of the government’s Safer Streets Fund.  

Created with the objective of tackling local acquisitive crimes like car theft and burglary, the latest round of the Safer Streets Fund has a particular emphasis on the safety of women and girls. The investment will go to police forces and local authorities across England and Wales as well as the British Transport Police to spend in the 2021 to 2022 financial year.

Crimes which take place in public places such as sexual harassment disproportionately affect women. Recipients of funding have submitted bids for innovative plans to increase the safety of public spaces, including projects which emphasise changing attitudes and behaviours in local communities. 

Since its inception, the government has committed £70 million to the Safer Streets Fund to support local areas across England and Wales to introduce initiatives aimed at stopping offences happening in the first place. 

Round two saw 50 projects across England and Wales awarded a total of £18.4 million to go towards measures proven to cut crime, including simple changes to the design of streets such as locked gates around alleyways, increased street lighting and the installation of CCTV. 

Safer Streets is just one of the ways government is working to tackle violence against women and girls. 

In August we published the tackling violence against women and girls strategy, which commits to radically changing how we stop violence and abuse using a whole-system approach, focused on long-term change alongside immediate practical action to improve women’s physical safety in public spaces.

This includes funding new police lead Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth, to set the policing strategy for tackling violence against women and girls across England and Wales and plans to launch a large scale public campaign with the aim of challenging attitudes and changing behaviours.

Last month the Home Office and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) launched StreetSafe, an online mapping tool which allows all members of the public to flag areas where they don’t feel safe and say why. 

Primarily, but not exclusively, aimed at women and girls, the data collected from StreetSafe will allow police to understand specific concerns and use the information to make decisions on safety in the area. 

More widely, since its inception last year, the Safer Streets Fund has allowed forces and local authorities to invest in transformative crime prevention initiatives. 

For example, in Humberside, in one of the most deprived estates in the country, funding has gone towards upgrading 20 communal entrances to blocks that drive a high level of burglary and installing 18 secure storage facilities for bikes and motorbikes. 

Alongside this, they have installed secure fencing and gates and there is now a dedicated community outreach programme to support residents and victims of crime on the estate. 

Projects across the country have also focused on setting up Neighbourhood Watch groups, increased automated number plate recognition technology and CCTV ,and introducing wardens to undertake community engagement and train members of the public in crime prevention. 

£25 million was allocated to this Safer Streets funding round, of which £23.5 million is going to successful bidders. A full list of the successful recipients for round three of the Safer Streets is as follows: 

North East

Lead bidder Grant funding awarded (£) Number of bids covered
Cumbria PCC 191,583.96 1
Durham PCC 453,813.00 1
Northumbria PCC 775,397.00 2
Total £1,420,793.96  

North West

Lead bidder Grant funding awarded (£) Number of bids covered
Blackpool Borough Council 550,000.00 1
Cheshire PCC 1,100,000.00 2
Greater Manchester Combined Authority 549,744.00 1
Merseyside PCC 269,931.00 1
Total £2,469,675.00  

South East

Lead bidder Grant funding awarded (£) Number of bids covered
Essex PCC 550,000.00 1
Hampshire PCC 648,755.06 2
Kent PCC 741,548.00 2
Surrey PCC 174,772.49 1
Sussex PCC 976,781.80 2
Thames Valley PCC 939,940.00 2
Total £4,031,797.35  

South West

Lead bidder Grant funding awarded (£) Number of bids covered
Cornwall Council 33,649.06 1
Dorset Council 379,766.00 1
Gloucestershire PCC 1,061,478.00 2
North Somerset Council 324,449.00 1
Plymouth Council 512,082.56 1
Swindon Borough Council 550,000.00 1
Total £2,861,424.62  

Wales

Lead bidder Grant funding awarded (£) Number of bids covered
Dyfed Powys PCC 155,442.88 1
Gwent PCC 673,181.32 2
North Wales PCC 336,759.50 1
South Wales PCC 457,543.00 1
Total £1,622,926.70  

West Midlands

Lead bidder Grant funding awarded (£) Number of bids covered
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council 119,057.00 1
Staffordshire PCC 550,000.00 1
Warwickshire PCC 249,000.00 1
West Mercia PCC 1,027,895.00 2
West Midlands PCC 549,515.00 1
Total £2,495,467.00  

Yorkshire and Humberside

Lead bidder Grant funding awarded (£) Number of bids covered
North Yorkshire PCC 306,802.00 1
South Yorkshire PCC 550,000.00 1
West Yorkshire Combined Authority 655,281.30 2
Cleveland PCC 381,771.00 1
Total £1,893,854.30  

East of England

Lead bidder Grant funding awarded (£) Number of bids covered
Bedfordshire PCC 550,000.00 1
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough PCC 471,314.00 1
Hertfordshire PCC 548,176.00 1
Ipswich Borough Council 124,391.11 1
Norfolk PCC 427,245.70 1
Total £2,121,126.81  

East Midlands

Lead bidder Grant funding awarded (£) Number of bids covered
Derby City Council 550,000.00 1
Leicestershire PCC 550,000.00 1
Lincolnshire PCC 401,626.46 1
Northampton Borough Council 513,210.00 1
Nottinghamshire PCC 1,100,000.00 2
Total £3,114,836.46  

London

Lead bidder Grant funding awarded (£) Number of bids covered
City of London Corporation 28,812.00 1
Lambeth Council 544,385.62 1
Southwark Council 353,661.00 1
Total £926,858.62  

England and Wales

Lead bidder Grant funding awarded (£) Number of bids covered
British Transport Police 550,000.00 1
Total 550,000.00  

Updates to this page

Published 3 October 2021