• Successful bids from the third round of the Safer Streets Fund announced  
  • Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and local authorities across England and Wales to receive a total of £23.5 million on top of the £18.4 million already awarded this year for the second round of the Fund
  • Funding will go towards local projects aimed at increasing the safety of public spaces for all with a particular focus on tackling violence against women and girls  

Police forces and local authorities across England and Wales, are to receive a share of £23.5million 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 21/22 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 violence towards 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 Numberplate Recognition Technology and CCTV and introducing wardens to undertake community engagement and train members of the public in crime prevention. 

£25m was allocated to this Safer Streets funding round, of which £23.5m 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 bidderGrant funding awarded(£)Number of bids covered
Cumbria PCC191,583.961
Durham PCC453,813.001
Northumbria PCC775,397.002
Total£1,420,793.96 

North West

Lead bidderGrant funding awarded(£)Number of bids covered
Blackpool Borough Council550,000.001
Cheshire PCC1,100,000.002
Cleveland PCC381,771.001
Greater Manchester Combined Authority549,744.001
Merseyside PCC269,931.001
Total£2,851,446.00 

South East

Lead bidderGrant funding awarded(£)Number of bids covered
Essex PCC550,000.001
Hampshire PCC648,755.062
Kent PCC741,548.002
Surrey PCC174,772.491
Sussex PCC976,781.802
Thames Valley PCC939,940.002
Total£4,031,797.35 

South West

Lead bidderGrant funding awarded(£)Number of bids covered
Cornwall Council33,649.061
Dorset Council379,766.001
Gloucestershire PCC1,061,478.002
North Somerset Council324,449.001
Plymouth Council512,082.561
Swindon Borough Council550,000.001
Total£2,861,424.62 

Wales

Lead bidderGrant funding awarded(£)Number of bids covered
Dyfed Powys PCC155,442.881
Gwent PCC673,181.322
North Wales PCC336,759.501
South Wales PCC457,543.001
Total£1,622,926.70 

West Midlands

Lead bidderGrant funding awarded(£)Number of bids covered
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council119,057.001
Staffordshire PCC550,000.001
Warwickshire PCC249,000.001
West Mercia PCC1,027,895.002
West Midlands PCC549,515.001
Total£2,495,467.00 

Yorkshire and Humberside

Lead bidderGrant funding awarded(£)Number of bids covered
North Yorkshire PCC306,802.001
South Yorkshire PCC550,000.001
West Yorkshire Combined Authority655,281.302
Total£1,512,083.30 

East of England

Lead bidderGrant funding awarded(£)Number of bids covered
Bedfordshire PCC550,000.001
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough PCC471,314.001
Hertfordshire PCC548,176.001
Ipswich Borough Council124,391.111
Norfolk PCC427,245.701
Total£2,121,126.81 

East Midlands

Lead bidderGrant funding awarded(£)Number of bids covered
Derby City Council550,000.001
Leicestershire PCC550,000.001
Lincolnshire PCC401,626.461
Northampton Borough Council513,210.001
Nottinghamshire PCC1,100,000.002
Total£3,114,836.46 

London

Lead bidderGrant funding awarded(£)Number of bids covered
City of London Corporation28,812.001
Lambeth Council544,385.621
Southwark Council353,661.001
Total£926,858.62 

England and Wales

Lead bidderGrant funding awarded(£)Number of bids covered
British Transport Police550,000.001
Total550,000.00 

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