Ministers unveil £14m funds to help grassroots tackle crime and anti-social behaviour

The government has launched two funds worth a combined £14m to help communities take action against crime and antisocial behaviour.

Crime Prevention Minister Baroness Browning said the funds would be made available to organisations from the voluntary sector.

They are:

• A £5m Community Action Against Crime: Innovation Fund: This is designed “to bring together active citizens and encourage new and creative ways of working within communities to tackle crime”, with a particular focus on helping grassroots activists. The government also wants the fund to encourage the voluntary sector to work more closely with local Community Safety Partnerships, and other statutory agencies that impact on community safety, “to drive co-design and co-delivery of services”. A further £5m will be made available in 2012/13
• A £4m Choices Fund: “ to support the development of innovative local solutions to reduce substance misuse and offending by young people”.

Baroness Angela Browning said: "We know people are concerned about the crime and antisocial behaviour that blights many of our towns and cities. That is why we want to empower more communities to work together to tackle issues that matter to them locally.

"The voluntary sector plays a vital role in delivering this ambition and this new funding will help us to drive up action, encourage more creative solutions and build safer neighbourhoods for everyone.”

The minister added that the government would “play its part” by making the police more accountable to the public they serve and ensure that local policing priorities are “focussed on what local people want, not on what central government thinks they want”.

The funding follows a report by Baroness Newlove, the government's Champion for Active Safer Communities, which urged a change of culture so neighbourhoods no longer see crime, antisocial behaviour and disorder as 'someone else's problem'. The report said communities should be seen as equal partners in resolving issues such as anti-social behaviour.

Baroness Newlove said: "This funding will give communities suffering the effects of crime and antisocial behaviour much more of a say in reclaiming their neighbourhoods and making change happen. We need to acknowledge the fantastic work individuals and informal partnerships are doing, often as volunteers, dipping into their own pockets, and let them access this funding too to get on with the job of building strong and caring neighbourhoods in their own innovative way."