Following the London Mayoral election, Sadiq Khan has hit the ground running.
Last week Sadiq Khan visited Brent to announce record additional funding of £14.5m to tackle violence in key hotspots across London including Brent. This was announced from the Church End & Roundwood Unity Centre in Harlesden.
This money will fund expansion of the flagship Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) programme to tackle violent crime. In particular, the funding will be focussed on expanding the community-led MyEnds programme from eight areas to 11 to deliver youth work and preventative activities.
The funding boost will mean a hyper-local approach to tackling violence will for the first time operating in all 32 London boroughs. I welcome the extra funding being provided by the Mayor of London to tackle violent crime in Brent and beyond.
Violent crime is a blight on our communities and it is vital we get to the root of what causes it and adopt a localised approach. We know that when you do the work on the ground, and develop meaningful links within communities, crime comes down and violence comes down, and we saw that with the investment in neighbourhood policing under the last Labour government.
I know this funding will make a real difference here in Brent.