Published Article

HeadlineStuds up to London youth violence – Sir Sadiq Khan’s VRU partners with London’s football clubs

Short HeadlineStuds up to London youth violence

StandfirstAll 16 professional football clubs in London join together with the mayor's violence reduction unit in new approach

The mayor of London has announced that his violence reduction unit (VRU) is to partner with all 16 professional football clubs in the capital in an attempt to bring youth violence rates down.

The VRU has teamed up with London United with the professional clubs’ CCO’s (club community organisations) involved. They include all London Premier League teams in Arsenal, Brentford, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Fulham and Tottenham and West Ham.

It aims to unite London through football, in a way that usually divided its residents among the professional teams. A similar method was used in the wake of the Manchester bombings when Man City and Man United launched the ‘A City United’ campaign, forming unity from rivalry in the cities better interest.

Sir Sadiq Khan announced a £6 million injection from the VRU into London United and the schemes that are aimed to keep under 25’s off the streets. He described this as “diverting young people to positive, constructive things, rather than violence and gangs”.

£3.6 million will be given to the programme MyEnds and £2.4 million to the Stronger Futures programme who claim that evidence suggests violence affecting young people is most likely to happen between 3pm-10pm on a school day.

The activities taking place during this time are therefore designed to carry out the mayor, VRU and London United’s goal of providing an alternative to being on the streets.

This partnership comes after the summer saw the fewest murders since 2018, with 0 under 25 cases recorded in the summer holidays as well as encouraging figures published by the Met highlighting a drop in knife crime across the board.

Compared to last year, London’s knife crime offences have dropped by 7% with the drop in the under 25 age bracket falling by closer to 15%.

However, despite Khan claiming that “the evidence was clear [that London is safer]” referring to the figures, Reform UK assembly member Alex Wilson stated “if Sadiq Khan thinks London is getting more safe, he needs to get out more”.

The mayor has also been accused of “cherry picking his numbers” by the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp.

What is the violence reduction unit?

Announced by the mayor of London in 2018 and being officially established in 2019, the VRU is a new way of tackling crime in London among young people.

The aim of the organisation is to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to violence, tackling the root of the problems through social and community programmes aimed to divert people away from the alternatives. 

This is highlighted by the organisation’s ethos from their website, which states “we believe violence is preventable, not inevitable”.

Figures from City Hall show that in the organisation’s 6 years of operation they have invested £10 million in education, supported 7,000 parents and carers across all 32 London boroughs and funded 350,000 opportunities for young people across 40,000 activities and targeted interventions.