Neighbourhood policing is the bedrock of the British policing model, yet in many areas of the country it has been decimated in recent years. This Government are committed to rebuilding neighbourhood policing by putting officers, police community support officers and special constables back in our communities with new powers to tackle antisocial behaviour and local crime.
My constituents rightly want to see more neighbourhood policing teams on their streets. I welcome the Government’s commitment to bringing in 10,000 more neighbourhood police officers, but can the Secretary of State assure me that west London will get the neighbourhood policing teams we need?
My hon. Friend is right that we now have thousands fewer police officers and PCSOs on the streets than we had a decade ago. This includes the previous Government halving the number of PCSOs and cutting the number of special constables by two thirds. This newly elected Government are working at pace to introduce a new neighbourhood policing guarantee, putting police officers and PCSOs back on the streets. We have also announced funding and support for the College of Policing to begin the national roll-out of specialist training for neighbourhood officers in order to professionalise and strengthen the work they do in every corner of the country.
I welcome the Home Secretary to her place. My community in Harlow has been let down by the lack of neighbourhood policing. What will the Home Secretary do to address this issue, both through police on the streets and through the resources they have?
My hon. Friend makes an important point. This is a challenge we are facing across the country. The proportion of people saying that they barely ever see the police is now nearly half, up from a quarter when the Conservatives came to power in 2010. This has been deeply damaging to public confidence, and we need the police back on the beat, but they also need the powers to act. That is why we will also bring forward new powers to tackle shoplifting and antisocial behaviour, especially in our town centres.
Residents in Bracknell are concerned about the increasing numbers of drug users and dealers on our streets. I raised this issue when I recently met our neighbourhood policing team. What more support can be given to local police and other local services to get drug dealers off our streets?
My hon. Friend makes an important point. Drug dealing, drug misuse and other forms of antisocial behaviour and crime are a real challenge in many communities. First, we need to get neighbourhood police back on the beat to address these challenges. Secondly, neighbourhood police need greater powers, and we will introduce respect orders that allow the police to take action against repeat offenders and to make sure that our streets and communities can be kept safe.
In Ealing Southall, religious organisations are spending their own money protecting worshippers from antisocial behaviour and crime in the early morning. Sri Guru Singh Sabha gurdwara, for example, is spending £3,000 to £4,000 a week on patrols and security measures. I recently called a crime summit and, although the police are trying their best, the community needs more police on the streets and a return to neighbourhood policing. What progress has been made on recruiting the much-needed 13,000 new police and community support officers we need to restore trust in the safety of our communities and town centres?
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing Southall (Deirdre Costigan) for the leadership she is showing in her community. The point she raises is partly about increasing neighbourhood police numbers, which is part of this Labour Government’s plan. It is also about ensuring that we have partnerships between the police and local communities, rather than communities feeling that they have to do this alone. Such partnerships between the police and communities are at the heart of the British model of policing by consent, which is what we need to restore and rebuild after the damage that has been done.
The cost of rural crime shot up by 41% in the south-west between 2022 and 2023, while 86% of respondents to a recent National Farmers Union survey said that rural crime was negatively affecting farmers’ mental health. How is the Department supporting neighbourhood officers and rural beats to adequately deal with the heightened levels of rural crime?
The hon. Member makes a serious point. We need to increase neighbourhood policing in rural areas and to recognise the additional different challenges that rural areas can face, both because of the geography and the particular kinds of crime that affect farmers and farming equipment. That is why we have set out our intention to draw up a new rural crime action plan, alongside our plans for neighbourhood policing.
Under the last Conservative Government, excluding fraud and computer misuse, crime fell by 50%—[Interruption.] I am pleased to say that in Beverley and Holderness, as across the rest of the country, it was community groups, local people and the police working together who helped to do that. Working with the local community, the Cherry Tree Centre helped to reduce antisocial behaviour in the St Nicholas area of Beverley by 43%, year on year, by last summer. What will the Secretary of State do to ensure that such community co-operation leads to further cuts in crime, which was so welcome under the Conservatives?
I caution the right hon. Member against excluding one of the most common crimes in the country from his figures. Some of the crimes that impact town centres at the heart of local communities most heavily, such as shoplifting, street crime and street theft, have soared in recent years, but there was no response at all by the previous Government. We are making those crimes a priority as part of our plans to change some of the laws around shoplifting and assault on shop workers, as well as getting more police back on the beat.