In March 2019, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a £100M fund. From the fund, Sajid Javid announced that £12.4 million was to be distributed to 18 forces dealing with high levels of violent crime, around a third of the funding - £35 million to support the setting up of violence reduction units (VRUs) and other preventative activity across the country. VRUs are a multi-agency approach bringing together police, health agencies, local government, and community representatives to tackle violent crime and its underlying causes and the VRU allocation to Greater Manchester was £4.8M of which Trafford was allocated £300,000 in October 2019.
The funding can only be spent in line with an action plan agreed by the funding authority and in Trafford; the new money has been used to help implement the agreed Community Safety Partnership Action Plan. The plan will see delivery in the areas of a Violence Reduction Awareness Programme; Project Knife Awareness; detached youth work; the delivery of sport and physical activity opportunities and local responsive solutions.
A week of action it taking place commencing from 20 January 2020 to prevent serious violence and knife crime in Trafford and Cllr. Chris Boyes, Shadow Executive Member for Public Safety, Governance and Reform has said “Trafford Conservatives welcome the establishment of the Violence Reduction Unit set up in October 2019 with funding from the Home Office. This is another Government initiative showing action, not just empty promises. We are also pleased that the funding has enabled the week of action to take place locally.”
“One of the reasons that Trafford is a popular place to live is its low crime rate compared to neighbouring boroughs. Conservatives want to keep crime as low as possible and are investing in crime reduction through the Violence Reduction Units and other measures such as the additional 347 police officers for Greater Manchester as part of the first phase of police recruitment as part of Boris’ uplift in police numbers