FOR Cardiff joins call for urgent action on safer high streets

Without urgent reform, current systems cannot deliver on Government ambitions to tackle high street crime. That is the message coming from High Streets UK after their second Safer High Streets Forum this week.

Earlier this year, Business representatives from the nation’s flagship high streets came together to launch High Streets UK – a new partnership which aims to tackle the most pressing issues facing high streets, and unlock fresh opportunities for growth. The group’s core objective is to develop programmes and policy recommendations which will enable flagship UK high streets to drive local and national growth, aligning with the Government’s focus on creating a productive and sustainable economy.

Founding members of High Streets UK include leading Business Improvement Districts from Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Leeds and London.

Following this week’s Safer High Streets Forum in London, High Streets UK has set out a four-point policy proposal to urgently tackle prolific offending, business crime, anti-social behaviour, and organised criminal activity taking place on the UK’s flagship high streets.

Recent Government commitments on retail crime – including reprioritising shoplifting and making assaulting a retail worker a standalone offence – are welcome acknowledgements of unprecedented levels of loss from customer theft, which have soared to £2 billion,1 and escalating violence against shop staff. However, High Streets UK warns that criminal justice infrastructure, police funding and strategic prioritisation of other crime categories must be urgently reviewed if the crime plaguing our high streets is to be meaningfully and holistically tackled.

The group’s key recommendations include: 

1. Ring fenced policing uplift in and around flagship high streets;
2. Developing a clear plan for criminal justice system reform, including strengthened provisions around Criminal Behaviour Orders;
3. A coordinated, nationwide multi-agency approach to tackling organised crime;
4. Pilot a standardised, nationwide framework for businesses to report crime.

FOR Cardiff is the Business Improvement District (BID) of Cardiff city centre – a private, not-for-profit membership organisation voted for by the businesses of Cardiff city centre in June 2016.  Since 2016, FOR Cardiff has invested over £1.5million annually to deliver award-winning projects, campaigns and events that enhance the city centre and represent the needs of over eight hundred businesses.

Carolyn Brownell, Executive Director at FOR Cardiff stated that:  “FOR Cardiff delivers the Cardiff Against Business Crime (CABC) partnership and works closely with local stakeholders including South Wales Police to address crime in the city centre. These are national issues faced by cities up and down the county and, if adopted, the policy recommendations set out by High Streets UK would provide real support to address the roots of these problems. These policies would support high streets and help to keep retail workers safe, in Cardiff and across the UK.”