London Mayor Sadiq Khan blasted for scaling back plans to tackle soaring bloodshed in capital

SADIQ KHAN was under fire last night after his flagship plan to tackle soaring bloodshed in the capital was dramatically scaled back.

The London Mayor had promised that the £6.8million Violence Reduction Unit would make the city safer by treating violence as a “public health problem” rather than just a law and order issue.

But documents seen by The Sun reveal that it is now just going to focus on the most dangerous areas and will “not cover all of London”.

Susan Hall, who sits on City Hall’s Police and Crime Committee, said: “Sadiq Khan’s violent crime epidemic is reaching into every corner of our city, with even outer London boroughs becoming increasingly unsafe.

“The fact that London’s Violence Reduction Unit won’t cover the whole of our city really sums up the Mayor’s complacent attitude towards violent crime. This half-baked approach shows that Khan is failing to grasp the seriousness of soaring crime rates and remains unwilling to divert sufficient resources into tackling violence.

“Far from being a serious attempt to tackle violent crime, the VRU has only ever amounted to an exercise in virtue signalling. Londoners are crying out for a Mayor who will drop the PR and finally take action to get to grips with this terrible crimewave.”

TREATING VIOLENCE LIKE A DISEASE

The VRU was announced by the Mayor last September as a long-term strategy to stop the killings by treating violence as a disease, stopping it spreading then tackling the root causes.

The aim was to work with schools, the NHS, charities, social workers and community groups to intervene before young people get dragged into a life of crime.

But it soon faced criticism when Mr Khan appointed a Labour ally – Lambeth Council leader Lib Peck – to run the unit rather than a criminal justice expert.

Then it emerged that she sat on every meeting of the group that drew up the job description, and she knew all but one person on the interview panel.

Now papers from the VRU Partnership Reference Group reveal that its scope is being “refined” so that the unit will not cover the whole of the city.

“The model no longer focuses on a six hub, subregional approach but instead on a more hyper-local, place-based approach,” a report on the unit said.

“This allows for a deeper understanding of, and investment in, particular areas of London which are either experiencing significant increases in violence (in which case we want to invest in community-led, innovative solutions) or decreases in violence (in which case we want to learn from the activity and share that with other areas).

“This means that in the first instance the VRU’s delivery will focus on priority areas of London and not cover all of London.”

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “Following extensive consultation with London boroughs, the Met, public health services and community organisations, a proposal will be put to the Partnership Reference Group on Wednesday that, in addition to the broader work programme, the VRU will shift focus to prioritise work in areas where violence has increased significantly.

“This will enable it to make community-led interventions and, where violence has decreased, to learn from good practice to be shared across London.

"This will be concentrated on high crime areas where the demand is greatest initially, and then expanded out to other areas of the capital.

"The approach will ensure value for money and involve working with existing partnerships to remove duplication and ensure the VRU is working in the areas of highest demand.”

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