Creating safer streets: preventing crime by investing in communities

As the new Labour government gets to work, we’re exploring some of the key issues our communities are facing, to highlight the role of neighbourhood-level interventions in addressing inequalities and promoting better outcomes. In this blog Natasha Meldrum, policy and parliamentary assistant at Local Trust, focuses on the issue of crime – and the ways communities across the country have worked to build civic pride and support vulnerable people, which in turn has positively impacted crime rates.

The newly elected Labour government is prioritising crime prevention as one of its five missions. Our experience of delivering the Big Local programme has shown how the best preventative approaches are community–led, build social infrastructure, and create stronger neighbourhoods to sustain long–term community development.

The decline of civic pride and strong local identities

The issue of crime is particularly important for doubly disadvantaged neighbourhoods which face both high levels of deprivation and a lack of social infrastructure. These neighbourhoods face higher incidences of robbery and criminal damage compared to other deprived areas and the national average.  

Residents in these areas often feel neglected and, according to UK in a Changing Europe “believe their local area has got worse on almost every measure … in particular worsening levels of crime”. Residents are becoming increasingly pessimistic about their area, with declines in civic pride and strong local identities (UK in a Changing Europe, A neighbourhood strategy for national renewal, 2023). 

Long-term evaluation of the Big Local programme has outlined just how important social infrastructure is to build community cohesion and achieve change in these areas. Strong connections between residents allow the community to work together to navigate crises, providing specific assistance during times of trouble.  

Achieving this community cohesion can also help combat forms of inequality and discrimination, through building cross-cultural relationships to promote the inclusion of traditionally marginalised groups.  

People are much less likely to commit crime when they have strong local relationships, feel solidarity with neighbours, and can see that their communities offer opportunities. As individuals form stronger bonds, they share more information about their lives, developing an understanding of each other’s culture, needs and skills, making communities better able – and willing – to solve problems collectively.

The importance of social infrastructure in crime prevention

Social infrastructure also brings opportunities for individuals to develop the skills and networks needed to progress in employment, which combats the key underlying issue of crime: poverty.  

In other words, civic pride and social infrastructure are vital for crime prevention because they build social and human capital, which in turn make for more healthy and cohesive communities. This action is self-reinforcing. The more civic activity, and the more communities feel in control of their built environment, the less likely crime and anti-social behaviour are to occur. 

The Big Local programme offers insight into how this can be achieved. When people get together to improve their local environment, this creates social cohesion, which has a knock-on impact on crime reduction.  

Litter picks, tree-planting, restoring derelict properties, preventing fly-tipping – these are just some of the ways Big Local areas have improved their local environments.  

Crime prevention in the Big Local programme 

East Marsh United, a community group impacted by high crime levels in Grimsby, particularly violence, property damage and county lines offences, focused on cleaning up their neighbourhood and restoring derelict buildings.  

This had a notable impact on residents’ perceptions of crime and cultivated a strong sense of pride-in-place, which prevented further vandalism of the local environment.  

Community-led youth initiatives are also vital for crime prevention, with every closure of a youth centre corresponding to an increase in knife crime. Community groups can mobilise expertise and knowledge within neighbourhoods – including from young people themselves – to create youth support projects that are more likely to engage those who need them most.  

An example of this can be found at Grange Big Local in East Finchley, London. Here, martial arts activities were used to gain the trust of young people at risk of knife crime and gang violence, and who were otherwise disengaged. As part of the project, Grange Big Local employed local youth workers to provide support to those identified as most vulnerable, without the young people feeling judged or monitored.  

The success of the Big Local programme shows that putting local people in charge of funding and decision-making for their area strengthens local social fabric and boosts community cohesion. 

We believe the new government should learn from the experiences of communities on the ground and harness the potential of neighbourhood-level approaches – including by setting up a Community Wealth Fund, to invest in developing capacity in doubly disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Local Trust is launching a series of papers exploring how learning from the Big Local programme can inform the delivery of the new Labour government’s five missions, and where these could have the greatest impact – at the neighbourhood level. These missions span policy across health, economic growth, education, crime, and energy.  

Read the fifth and final paper on Labour’s mission to ‘Take back our streets’.