London’s public health approach to tackling knife crime is working but we must not take our eye off the ball

The reality paints a very different picture. In 2025 the number of homicides were the lowest per capita in recorded history. The number of young people killed was also the lowest this century, and teenagers losing their lives to violence was the joint lowest in three decades.

There are some that will not want Londoners or indeed those wanting to visit or do business in our great city to know that because it doesn’t suit their narrative.

But how did we get here?

Seven years ago, 54 young people tragically lost their lives to violence in London.

In recognition of the fact it is not possible to arrest your way out of violence, the Mayor of London took a step that was to be replicated by other cities and regions across the country.

He set up London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), the first in England and Wales, to take what is known as a public health approach to tackling violence. It means to acknowledge that the causes of crime are deeply complex and requires tackling it at the root and seeking to prevent it from happening in the first place.

Its remit when it was set up in 2019 was to contribute to reducing violence and the number of young people killed on London’s streets. The context was against a backdrop of austerity and cuts to vital services needed to support young people, which had led to 700 fewer youth workers and 130 fewer youth clubs in London.

With the Mayor’s investment, the VRU has worked with others to build back youth work in the capital and delivering more than a half a million targeted interventions and positive opportunities for children and young people.

That means investing in almost a quarter of London’s schools to tackle school exclusions, delivering thousands of activities after-school and at weekends to keep young people safe, and embedding youth workers in hospitals and police custody suites to break cycles of gang involvement, exploitation and to prevent reoffending.

The result? Homicides of young people were three times higher when the VRU was set up than they are today.

Hospital admissions of young people for knife assault are also down by almost a half over the same period.

That will not be any consolation to those that have lost loved ones to violence and it would be foolish to suggest there isn’t still a long way to go both in terms of driving down violence and for people feeling safe.

But progress is being made and the approach taken in London by the Mayor through enforcement has been bolstered by the role prevention continues to play.

That is down to the relationships and partnerships built, and entirely to the army of youth workers, mentors, teachers, councils and the fantastic grassroots community organisations stretching across London that day in, day out, step up and put children and young people first.

We’re committed to continue working in partnership to continue driving violence down but now is not the time to take our eye off the ball.

Stepping back from investing in young people and leaving it to enforcement alone risks taking us backwards. We must keep funding early intervention and support for young people because it’s an indisputable fact that violence is preventable, not inevitable.

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Lib Peck is the Director of London’s Violence Reduction Unit

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