High Streets UK has warned that without urgent reform, current systems cannot deliver on government ambitions to tackle high street crime.

The warning follows this week’s Safer High Streets Forum in London, where the group, which represents over 5,000 businesses, called for urgent action to tackle prolific offending, business crime, anti-social behaviour, and organised criminal activity amid losses from customer theft, which have risen to £2bn.

High Streets UK has warned that criminal justice infrastructure, police funding, and the strategic prioritisation of other crimes must be urgently reviewed if the issue is to be “meaningfully and holistically tackled”.

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The group’s key recommendations include:
• Ringfenced policing uplift in and around flagship high streets;
• Developing a clear plan for criminal justice system reform, including strengthened provisions around Criminal Behaviour Orders;
• A coordinated, nationwide multi-agency approach to tackling organised crime;
• Pilot a standardised, nationwide framework for businesses to report crime.

Dee Corsi, chair of High Streets UK and chief executive of founding member New West End Company, said that without “urgent national action on crime,” high street shops are at “serious risk”.

She said: “We have welcomed the government’s renewed focus on retail crime in particular. But we must go further and faster to tackle all types of crime affecting high streets, having a devastating effect on businesses and communities.

“At our Safer High Streets Forum, we shared our frontline experience of the international criminal gangs, business crime, prolific offenders and anti-social behaviour affecting our high streets – none of which can be meaningfully tackled with the current systems and resources in place.”

Read more: SGF reveals ‘devastating’ retail crime impact costing avg. local shop £19,673 per year