How is the Protect Your Home scheme funded?
On this page
The national Safer Streets Fund
The Safer Streets Fund is a national programme of funding which is made available for the purpose of reducing and preventing crime using proven, evidence-based interventions. It was launched in 2020 and was a manifesto commitment made by the Government.
The first ‘round’ of the programme called Safer Streets 1 was delivered in 2020/21, and this was followed by Safer Streets 2 which ran from 2021/2022. The objectives of each of the first two rounds of the programme were primarily to reduce neighbourhood crime. The focus was on ‘situational’ crime prevention methods/interventions in high crime areas.
Following the abduction and tragic killing of Sarah Everard in 2021, additional funds were made available in the form of Safer Streets 3, which focused on improving the safety of public spaces for women and girls.
The programme is currently in its fifth round.
Applying for Safer Streets Funds
The application process for each round has developed over time, but generally Police and Crime Commissioner’s (and some other organisations) can submit one or more ‘bids’ to receive funds to help them prevent crime in their area. The Safer Streets Programme is a competitive process so whilst a bid may be submitted, there is no guarantee it will be successful. The process of preparing and submitting bids is extensive and often includes a wide range of individuals from a diverse range of organisations. Bids can take around 8-10 weeks to prepare.
Although the national funding is referred to as ‘the Safer Streets Programme’, many Police and Crime Commissioners / Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners refer to the name of the projects/interventions that the fund enables them to deliver, rather than to the name of the fund itself. For example in North Yorkshire, we refer to one of ours as Protect Your Home Scheme.
The history of the Protect Your Home Scheme in North Yorkshire
In North Yorkshire, we have operated the Protect Your Home Scheme using funds which we have successfully bid for, from the national Safer Streets Programme rounds 1, 2, 4 and now 5.
The aim of Protect Your Home Scheme 5
The scheme aims to prevent burglary and improve security at residential homes and provide farmers with vehicle marking kits to protect property at farms, to support residents and farmers to feel safe.
What the funds will deliver
We will use the funds we have successfully bid for, to:
- Advise on security upgrades to urban residential homes by providing equipment and security improvement advice.
- Improve security in urban residential homes by providing and installing video doorbells in target areas.
- Enhance equipment recovery and prosecution rates by providing farmers with DNA vehicle marking kits across North Yorkshire.
A breakdown of what we will use the funds for:
| Delivery of burglary prevention and security upgrades advice | £60,000 |
| Residential property security upgrades | £120,000 |
| Farm security upgrades | £200,000 |
| Project Management Costs | £33,990 |
The timeline for the Protect Your Home Scheme
The funds from the national Safer Streets Programme must be spent by March 2025.
The areas covered by the Protect Your Home Scheme
The funds from the national Safer Streets Programme are limited which means that we cannot make the Protect Your Home Scheme available across all North Yorkshire and the City of York.
The scheme this round, had to focus to reduce burglary and anti-social behaviour in urban areas and acquisition crime in rural areas. As we do not have the funds to help all areas of North Yorkshire and the City of York, we used a variety of information help us select the areas of focus.
We know that burglary has a huge impact on all victims and occurs more frequently in highly populated areas. The areas chosen were selected by analysing local recorded crime data and we also considered other evidence sources such the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
The areas covered by the project are:
Scarborough
Castle Ward
York
Clifton, Guildhall and Westfield Wards
For the rural part of this funding, we know that thefts of rural vehicles has been the focus of previous Safer Streets funds to deliver the Protect Your Home Scheme in what we refer to as our ‘rural borderlands’, and through this latest round of funding we want to continue to build on that work.
A report from the National Farmers Union also informs us that in 2023 there has been a 30% increase, at a value of 12 million pounds of thefts of equipment, predominantly GPS units, by organised crime groups across these rural borders. With the significant impact these thefts have on farmers and their families in North Yorkshire along with the in-depth knowledge of the Rural Task Force, repeat victims and frequently targeted areas will be the focus.
We are covering across all of North Yorkshire for this intervention but with priority being given to Whitby and its surrounding areas, a central point of the ‘rural borderlands’.