Safer Cities Initiative (Hansard, 3 November 1988)

§ 10. Mr. Sumberg
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress his Department has made with its safer cities initiative; and if he will make a statement.

§ 16. Mr. Cash
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress his Department has made with its safer cities initiative; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Hurd
Twenty safer cities projects will be established throughout England over three years, with nine of them during the first year. Wolverhampton, Bradford and Nottingham have already been announced as safer cities areas. Staff have been recruited for the Wolverhampton and Bradford projects, and advertisements for staff for the Nottingham project were placed last week. Detailed discussions on local projects are well advanced in six further areas: Birmingham, Rochdale, Coventry, Hartlepool, Lewisham, and Tower Hamlets.

§ Mr. Sumberg
I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his reply and on this splendid scheme. When he reviews it, will he bear in mind that crime is not limited to large cities and inner cities? Therefore, will he consider expanding the scheme to areas such as mine, which would benefit from it?

§ Mr. Hurd
My hon. Friend is right. We started with the five towns project, as he knows, and Bolton, which is not far from him, was one example of that, although not what he wants. It is because that was successful in bringing down crime that we have enlarged the project to take in areas of cities in which crime is a particularly serious problem.

§ Mr. Loyden
On the question of safety in cities, will the Home Secretary give full regard to the distribution of police forces? In many cases, the outlying areas of cities in which there is a high level of crime are the most neglected. I hate to use the term "working-class", but in working-class areas there appears to be less police concern about criminality. When reviewing crime in cities, will he give full regard to such areas? There should be a better and more equal distribution of police forces on the beat.

§ Mr. Hurd
It is for the chief constable of a force area, particularly a big force area such as Merseyside, to decide how to deploy his men. The hon. Gentleman is quite right. Many of the most difficult circumstances and conditions 1175 obtain on the edge of cities and not just in what are called the inner cities. The hon. Gentleman will have been pleased to see—I am sure that he has given publicity to it—that crime in Merseyside has been falling.