Town and city centre safety

A Westminster Hall debate on town and city centre safety will take place on Tuesday 3 February 27 January at 9:30am. The debate will be led by Baggy Shanker MP. This is expected to be a wide-ranging debate and the information below is intended to summarise relevant key issues and the government’s response.

Background

According to data published by YouGov in August 2025, 47% of British adults feel “fairly safe” and 38% feel “very safe” whilst walking on the street in their area, compared with 9% of Brits who feel “not very safe” and 4% who feel “not safe at all”.

Research published by the Home Office in March 2023 found that more than three-quarters of people in England and Wales (78%) feel safe in the area where they live compared with 11% who do not.

Research published by the Welsh Government (PDF) in 2023 found that the strongest predictors of people feeling safe in their local area were:

• being male,
• being under 65 years of age,
• not having religious beliefs,
• having a very high level of life satisfaction,
• being satisfied with the services and facilities available in the local area,
• not having a limiting long-term illness,
• not having a litter problem in the area,
• not having a graffiti problem in the area,
• feeling that people in the local area treat each other with respect and consideration, and
• having access to a car or van.

Anti-social behaviour

Anti-social behaviour (ASB) can encompass a wide range of behaviours that cause nuisance and harm to others, such as vandalism, noise nuisance, threatening behaviour, use of off-road bikes, drug use and harassment.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales suggests in the year ending September 2025, 38% of people experienced or witnessed ASB. Around 1 million ASB incidents are reported to the police each year. However, research by YouGov suggests there is significant underreporting as 57% of victims or witnesses don’t report ASB at all (PDF).

Statistics are not published on how many ASB incidents occur in town or city centres. However, several MPs have raised concerns over the high levels of ASB in town centres and on high streets in their constituencies, including in a previous Westminster Hall debate in April 2023.

The Labour government's Crime and Policing Bill 2024-26 (currently being considered by the House of Lords) includes a range of measures aimed at strengthening the response to ASB, including:

• establishing ‘respect orders’ (a new type of civil order that could be imposed on adults who had engaged or threatened to engage in antisocial behaviour)
• giving local authorities the ability to impose larger fines for breaching restrictions of behaviours in public spaces
• strengthening police powers to seize off-road bikes

The Library briefing Anti-social behaviour and illegal use of off-road bikes and section 1 of the Library briefing Crime and Policing Bill 2024-26 provide further information.

Retail crime

Official statistics from the Crime Survey for England and Wales shows there were 529,994 shoplifting offences recorded by police forces in the year ending June 2025. This was an 13% increase on the previous year and the highest figure since the current recording practices began (2002/03).

Surveys of retailers have also indicated a high prevalence of shoplifting and violence towards shop workers. For example:

• the Home Office’s 2023 Commercial Victimisation Surveyfound that 41% of wholesale and retail sector business premises experienced at least one incident of commercial crime (counted as burglary, vandalism, theft, robbery, assaults or threats and fraud) during the previous 12 months
• the annual British Retail Consortium’s Retail Crime Surveyhas found significant increases in incidents of violence and abuse experienced by shop workers in recent years

There have also been concerns over how the police respond to shoplifting. For example, the 2025 British Retail Consortium’s Retail Crime Survey found that 61% of retailers considered the police response to incidents of retail crime as poor or very poor. Retailers said that their lack of confidence that the police would respond to reports of shoplifting contributed to them not reporting some incidents.

The police have made efforts to improve their response to retail crime. For example:

• In October 2023, the NPCC published a retail crime action plan(PDF). The NPCC also launched an information-sharing partnership between businesses and police called ‘Pegasus’, with the aim of better understanding the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identifying more offenders.
• In November 2023, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Policelaunched Southampton’s City Centre Policing Unit to increase police presence on high streets following a rise in shop theft and retail crime.
• Initiatives by Norfolk Constabulary and Greater Manchester Police to ensure shoplifting cases are investigated were alsopraised in a recent inspection on police investigations published by the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS).

However, the HMICFRS inspection also cautioned that “despite the efforts forces are making, it is clear that there is still a long way to go if the police are to improve retailers’ and the public’s confidence that they will treat shoplifting offences seriously”.

The Labour government’s Crime and Policing Bill 2024-26 includes measures aimed at tackling retail crime. This includes establishing a new standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker. The Crime and Policing Bill would also repeal section 22A of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980, that provides that a theft offence amounting to “low-value shoplifting” (defined as the value of stolen goods under £200) is to be treated as a summary offence and therefore can only be tried in the magistrates’ court. It has been argued that this has created a perception that low-value shoplifting is not prioritised.

The Library briefings Police presence on high streets, A new specific offence of assaulting a shopworker and section 4 of Crime and Policing Bill 2024-26 provides further information.

Violence against women and girls

According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, in the year ending September 2025, 12.8% of women had experienced domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking in the last year.

In December 2025, the government published its new violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy, Freedom from violence and abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls, together with an action plan (PDF).

The strategy says the government will take a “whole of society approach” to tackling VAWG, including by:

• prioritising prevention and tackling the root causes of VAWG,
• relentlessly pursuing perpetrators, and
• supporting victims and survivors of violence and abuse.

Protection from Sex-Based Harassment

The strategy confirmed that the government will commence the Protection from Sex-Based Harassment in Public Act 2023 on 1 April 2026. This means that from 1 April 2026, there will be a new offence of causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress to a person in public where the behaviour is done because of that person’s sex or presumed sex. The offence will carry a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment.

The VAWG action plan (PDF) also states that the Home Office will explore introducing a public sexual harassment awareness course for perpetrators to “challenge and change behaviours and reduce offending.”

Updating national design guidance

The strategy explains the government’s vision for ensuring that public environments should “foster confidence, dignity and freedom of movement” and that “well-lit streets, accessible transport, and thoughtful urban design can deter violence, reduce opportunities for harm, and send a clear message that public spaces belong to everyone.”

To achieve this, the government says it will “update national design guidance” so that considerations of VAWG are embedded into planning and transport guidance so that “safety considerations inform how public spaces are designed.”

A Library Insight on Violence against women and girls, published in July 2025, looks at the effectiveness of previous strategies on VAWG.

Snatch thefts

According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales 2024, an estimated 78,000 people had phones or bags snatched from them on the street in the year ending March 2024.

This is equivalent to 200 ‘snatch thefts’ a day and is a 153% increase on the number of incidents in the year ending March 2023.

The government’s Crime and Policing Bill includes a measure that would give the police a new power to “enter a premises without a warrant to search for and seize stolen goods, such as phones located using GPS tracking technology.”

The government has also hosted a mobile phone theft summit to “drive new action to tackle mobile phone thefts” whilst police forces have launched a number of targeted operations in phone theft hotspot areas.

The Library briefing Mobile phone thefts provides further information.

Money laundering on high streets and so called ‘dodgy shops’

The National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates that £12bn of criminal cash is generated in the UK each year, with cash-intensive businesses such as barber shops, vape shops, nail bars, American-themed sweet shops and car washes often used by criminals to conceal the origins of illicit cash.

According to the NCA, crime gangs use these shops to mix legitimate funds with criminal profits in order to launder money. The NCA also state that these businesses are often linked to other types of criminal activity, such as drug dealing and serious violence.

Operation Machinize

In 2025, the NCA ran Operation Machinize in coordination with police forces, Regional Organised crime units, HMRC, Trading Standards and Home Office Immigration Enforcement.

The first operation (March to April 2025) resulted in:

• 380 premises visited,
• ten shops shut with further closures expected,
• freezing orders over bank accounts totalling more than £1m secured,
• officers seizing £40,000 in cash, 200,000 cigarettes, 7,000 packs of tobacco, 8,000 illegal vapes and two vehicles,
• 35 people arrested,
• 55 people questioned about their immigration status, and
• 97 individuals spoken to in relation to potential modern slavery.

A second operation (October 2025) resulted in:

• 2,734 premises visited and raided,
• 924 individuals arrested,
• over £10.7m of suspected criminal proceeds seized,
• over £2.7m worth of illicit commodities destroyed,
• 450 companies referred to Companies House, and
• 341 referral notices for illegal working and renting were issued meaning businesses could face fines of up to £60,000 per worker with landlords facing fines of up to £20,000 per tenant if found liable.

In November 2025, the government announced the creation of a high streets illegality taskforce to “tackle money laundering and associated criminality” on high streets. The Security Minister, Dan Jarvis, has stated that the taskforce will:

[…] develop an intelligence-led understanding of the threat, design systemic interventions to disrupt money laundering and related criminality and set strategic priorities for future operational activity.

Additional government action Neighbourhood policing guarantee

The Labour government has set out its priorities on neighbourhood policing and town centre crime in its ‘safer streets mission’.

This includes a “neighbourhood policing guarantee” that “each neighbourhood will have named, contactable officers”. There will also be dedicated neighbourhood teams who will “spend their time on the beat with guaranteed police patrols in town centres and other hotspot areas at peak times” as well as a dedicated ASB lead in every force.

The CEO of the College of Policing, Chief Constable Sir Andy Marsh, has welcomed the government’s neighbourhood policing guarantee, stating that “a visible neighbourhood police presence serving the public to a more consistent standard will improve confidence in police.”

Kate Nicholls, Chief Executive of UK Hospitality, stated that “It cannot be overstated how important it is for businesses and communities to feel confident in their own safety on the streets, and knowing their neighbourhood police officers engenders that confidence.”

Central to the guarantee, is the government’s commitment to put 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs and special constables into neighbourhood policing roles by 2029.

Safer Streets Fund

The Home Office’s Safer Streets Fund awards grants to police forces for interventions aimed at reducing violence against women and girls, anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood crime.

Since the Safer Streets Fund was launched in 2020, the government has awarded £159 million to 413 projects across England and Wales.

The most recent funding round (round five) awarded £34 million to police forces to implement measures from 1 October 2023 to 31 March 2025.

Measures that have received funding from the Safer Streets Fund include the installation of additional street lighting, additional CCTV and educational activities and behavioural change programmes aimed at tackling VAWG.

Action on town centre crime

In July 2025, the Home Office launched a “summer blitz on town centre crime” to increase “visible town centre policing” and the “use of targeted enforcement powers against troublemakers.”

The Home Office state that the action took place in 650 town centres, with “visible patrols up almost 20% compared to the previous year” and “over 16,000 arrests and fines, mostly for shop theft and antisocial behaviour.”

The Home Office stated that this “boosted public confidence in town centres.”

In December 2025, the Home Office launched a “winter of action to crack down on town centre crime”, stating that the police will use “hotspot patrols, quick visible enforcement, and locally tailored approaches […] to clamp down on shop theft and street crime across hundreds of town centres.”

Pride in Place Strategy

In September 2025, the government announced a Pride in Place Strategy will give local communities “new powers to revitalise their high streets and restore pride in their towns” with up to £5bn of government funding.

The strategy aims to “create safer, healthier neighbourhoods where communities can thrive” by giving communities “unprecedented new powers to seize boarded shops, save derelict pubs and block gambling and vape shops on their high street.”

More information is available in the government’s Pride in Place Strategy document.

Policing white paper

On 26 January 2026, the Home Office published a white paper on police reform, From local to national: a new model for policing.

The proposals include significantly reducing the number of police forces in England and Wales, by merging existing forces into larger regional police forces. The government does not propose what the new geographies of these larger forces will be. Instead, it has committed to set up an independent review that will consider the best way to organise regional police forces. This should report in the summer.

The government has said the implementation will not be achieved until the end of the next Parliament, though suggests it could identify a possible merger of police forces as a “pathfinder” programme delivered within this Parliament.

The white paper also makes several other proposals for reforming policing, including to:

• merge the National Crime Agency, College of Policing and National Police Chiefs’ Council into a new National Police Service, which will lead on serious and organised crime and counter terrorism
• require police officers to hold a ‘licence to practice’, which will involve mandatory training requirements for officers to continue to serve
• deliver a police national workforce strategy, with a focus on ensuring recruitment of both neighbourhood police officers and specialists that can support the police to respond to modern threats

The government says these changes are necessary to respond to falling public confidence in the police, poor police performance and to changing patterns in crime.

The Library briefing Policing in the UK: Current structures and proposals for reform provides further information.