Where are London’s violent crime hotspots?

0:02Hi, I'm Charlie Duffield and welcome back to The Standard Podcast. If you're new here, hit follow and give us a rating. For all the latest news, head to standard.co.uk. Coming up later in the show, Lily Allen's seven-year music hiatus has come to an end with the release of her fifth album, West End Girl. The pop girls that are making waves today probably wouldn't exist without her. We wouldn't have Pink Panther S or Charlie XCX writing so much about their lives and turning it into art if we hadn't had Lily because this is something that she's always done. But first, the standard can reveal a new interactive map that pinpoints London's violent crime hotspots as latest figures show the capital still accounts for almost a third of knife offences in England and Wales.

1:02Despite efforts by the Metropolitan Police, data published by the Office for National Statistics highlights the battle ahead for Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley's rapidly shrinking force. The Met has launched a proactive approach to tackling serious violence with specialist teams, disrupting more organised crime gangs, tackling drug dealing and county lines, while safeguarding those being exploited. Overall, the data for police-recorded crime paints a mixed picture, according to Billy Gazard from the Office for National Statistics. And to find out more, I spoke to The Standards' crime correspondent, Anthony France.

1:42Anthony, tell me more about this map you've produced. So the Office for National Statistics every quarter publishes figures about crime across England and Wales. We particularly look at London because basically London produces most of the offences that make up that report. So we get a raw data dump and then I think we're probably the only people actually who look into the parts of this report. We sort of had a look and a drill down in some of the figures. What we found was we looked at the violent crime in London and we produced an interactive map that shows that London still accounts for about a third of knife crime in England and Wales.

2:22And although some offences like, for example, homicide are down, some offences like shoplifting and fraud are huge. Let's talk through this data. Which boroughs have the highest crime rates or does it depend on different types of crime? Yes, most certainly it does depend on a certain crimes. But there are, if you like, the most densely populated parts of London, particularly Croydon, the West End, where you'll see huge amounts of crimes. So for example, we had a look at what is called violence with injury, and that can be anything from an actual bodily harm right up to life-threatening. And when we looked at that, the area that was leading very much so was Croydon, followed by, you might expect, Westminster, Brent, Greenwich, Lambeth, Newham, Southwark, Lewisham, Ealing and Tower Hamlets.

3:10And which areas proved the safest? So when we looked at the areas that were the most safest, Richmond-upon-Thames had the fewest, Kingston-upon-Thames, which if you like, those are two of the most wealthy areas in London. I was very surprised by Harrow, so there's obviously some very good work going on up there, Merton and Sutton. So how is the Met Police tackling serious violence? The Met has launched a series of proactive operations, mainly disrupting organised crime groups, tackling drug dealing and county lines, and also safeguarding particularly young children who are being exploited. And this has led to thousands of arrests over the last year, and they've seized many, many, many hundreds of deadly weapons, including knives, zombie knives and guns.

3:59And how does this data compare to previous crime statistics? there was some skepticism i have to admit earlier this year city hall had put out some figures and you always have skepticism with figures if they're ever put out by politicians but this is the ons and particularly encouraging is to see that homicides in london are down and particularly amongst those under 25s and teenagers also violence with injuries so those are the things i sort of mentioned about that we particularly looked at. So those are your offences from ABH to life threatening injuries. So those are the ones that sometimes will creep over into the homicides.

4:39And it's really encouraging to see they're down by 14%. Not so encouraging is to see that sexual offences, they're up by 11%. And of course, there's very good reporting on those now. And of course, Still a very huge problem with shoplifting. 96 ,000 offences, which is up 37 % in the last 12 months. That seems like a big increase. What's driving that? So behind the shoplifting, so if you think one in 10 shoplifting offences ever gets reported, so that 96 ,000 is only like a tiny number of offences. What is behind it? Organised gangs, very much so. I mean, they're probably feeding most of that. You do have people who would shoplift for need.

5:28Most of that is now organised gangs. So you see gangs that may turn, you know, because gangs are always about making money and making profit and exploiting young people. So you will see them perhaps moving away from some of the offences. I mean, if you look at robbery, 33 ,000 robberies are down you know are those organized crime groups now moving into shoplifting because mobile phones it's much more difficult now if you steal a mobile phone because of the work that the Met are doing and City of London Police are doing with the mobile phone networks does that mean that is now shifting into other types of theft you know in order to make those huge amounts of money.

6:08What has the reaction been to these figures then? In terms of response to the figures we've heard from the deputy premier for policing they're obviously pleased they say that you're less likely to become a victim of violence in the capital of the rest of the country and that the evidence shows that their approach to tackling crime is working they're saying that's why that as i mentioned about mobile phone crime that they they need to step up the action in terms of that and shoplifting and antisocial behavior the met as well they've been talking about it as well and And they're saying that things seem to be, by all looks of things, going in the right direction.

6:44Do you think London is becoming more dangerous? It's something that people say that they're leaving London because of their concerns about rising crime. I've heard of people who are saying that they want to leave London because of the crime levels. I think, I mean, crime is high in London, like all metropolitan areas. But if you were to look at some of the capital cities around the world, London is safer. You know, the ability to record, you know, incidents on social media, which then get played out to huge audiences, sometimes without context of what they are. And of course, that adds to the fear of crime.

7:25You know, that could be a reason why people are saying, oh, London's so dangerous, because obviously you're now seeing it on your handset in your living room. knife fights, machete fights, that sort of thing. Finally, what stands out to you from this data? For me personally, the one thing that always jumps out to me is about sexual offences and violence against women and girls. Because while it is true, homicides have gone down in London, the number of domestic homicides that we are seeing in London, I know for a factor going up, They're about 50 % up on what they were last year. Now, they're not in these figures.

8:03And while I just kind of urge caution behind these crime figures are people, families who've lost loved ones. Crime is going down. But if you're a victim, it's almost one victim too many. Let's go to a break. Coming up in part two, Lily Allen doesn't hold back about her relationship with ex David Harbour in her new confessional pop album. We'll see you back here in just a moment. Welcome back. Lily Allen's new album West End Girl is out today and is centred on the 40-year-old British pop star's divorce from the US actor David Harbour, who stars in the Netflix sci-fi series Stranger Things. Allen likened it to a work of autofiction and told British Vogue that it references things she experienced in her marriage, but that's not to say it's all gospel.

9:05It's an album about betrayal and the takedown of a dying relationship and so far has had resoundingly positive reviews. Joining me now is The Standard's culture writer, India Block. This is Lily Allen's first album in seven years. What did you make of it? It's incredible. West End Girl. I completely agree with our reviewer at The Standard, Maddy Musson. It's an absolute banger of an album, definitely four stars. I think she's really come back to music and proved what an incredible lyricist she is. She'd kind of moved away from making music, was having a very successful stage acting career, but she clearly felt she had a lot to say and has got back in the recording studio and made some absolutely brilliant, funny, heartbreaking tracks.

9:59Allegedly, she recorded it in just 16 days. Do you think she can still hold her own as an artist? Oh, completely. I think, in fact, it shows what a talent she is to make it so quickly. I mean, obviously, it's a response to some things that have happened in her life, which I'm sure we'll get into in a minute. It's coming out at a very precise time to coincide with some events that are also going to be hitting the headlines. But it doesn't feel rushed. I think a lot of people felt that her last album felt a little bit sort of shaky and rushed. But I would say this has completely self-assured as her debut with Smile.

10:41It's got really tight production. This shows what happens when an artist has some time to spend on something or to spend on themselves, I think is the thing. Because if you are going to really say something on an album, you kind of need some life to happen to you in between. And I think not to get into the whole Taylor Swift of it all again. And I think that's why fans are so disappointed with the life of a showgirl, because it was recorded in these snatched pockets of times while she was touring. And not much had happened in her life to sort of fill an entire album's worth of material and emotion.

11:18And if you are a singer-songwriter who writes about your own life, I think there needs to be this metamorphosis, this change. You've got to be out there living your life and not spending it all kind of on stage and recording. So I think this really shows that if artists are given as much time as they need between albums, that something really brilliant can come out of it. You need to sort of let life happen and then you need to percolate and digest it and turn it into something beautiful, even if you're writing about something very raw and tragic, as Lily is here. This album is raw, it's deadpan, it's hugely confessional, and it really airs a lot of dirty laundry about her relationship with her ex-husband.

12:05I saw one review that said you almost feel sorry for David Harbour. What do you think? I don't feel sorry for David Harbour. Obviously, we have to be sort of careful. This is all allegedly and it's autofiction. There are sort of cover names and I'm sure timelines are collapsed and things moved around to sort of make it legally OK without sort of defaming someone. But also, I think this is her way of taking back the narrative from the press. She's had a very sort of turbulent relationship with the press, especially in her early years. She got famous very young. She was 21. She was really hounded by the paparazzi.

12:44she's always been outspoken and often found herself kind of getting a lot of negative coverage over things that she said and that she did and I think that sort of happened again with her relationship breaking down so we know that she married David Harbour who is an actor he's the star of Stranger Things which the fifth and final season is coming out in a few weeks time So he's about to go on a big press tour. And he has painted himself as a sort of cozy family man. He married Lily Allen in a 2020 ceremony in Vegas. She moved her family over to New York to be with them. She has children from her previous marriage.

13:27And they set up home in this gorgeous house in New York. She really gets into that in the title track, which is also the first song, West End Girl. The woman in the song gets cast as the lead in a play. And we also know that Alan returned to London and she starred in 2.22, A Ghost Story on the West End. She got rave reviews. It really kicked off this new era of her being a stage actress. But that seems to have caused issues in her relationship. They've broken up now. There was rumours of a split for ages. There was rumours of David Harbour having affairs and being spotted on celebrity dating apps, Raya, which is incidentally where they met.

14:11Rumours that Lily had been spotted on dating apps too. And the story that she is telling, fictionalised, in this album is of the breakdown for marriage. And the cracks begin to occur when the male partner requests an open relationship. And that's something that the woman doesn't want to really have. She kind of wants monogamy, but she also wants her partner to be happy. And there are rules about discretion and it not being someone they both know and essentially don't flaunt it in front of the press. but stories did come out. Lily got stuck in this press narrative that she was the scorned wife being sort of stepped out on.

14:53And by writing this album, she's completely reframed that. She has taken back all of the power. She's almost kind of weaponized the press interest into her. And I think it's very smart. It's very clever. By airing all of that dirty laundry, it can't be used against her. And we know that she's done this before. She wrote a memoir that was very tell-all. It detailed her own affair with Liam Gallagher when her previous marriage was breaking down and he was married. She talked about hiring female sex workers when her marriage was breaking down to sort of experience intimacy in a way that wasn't connected to sort of male attention, which I think was a very brave thing to talk about.

15:41But also she's spoken about how she wanted to get ahead of any press stories about it. I think she is someone who lives in this kind of constant fear of what the newspapers will be saying about her. And so by saying it herself, in her own words, she sidesteps all of that. The sting is taken out of it because any headline that runs today and in the next few weeks will be based on her own words. I don't think it can be misconstrued. So I think that's why it's particularly powerful. I think it really changes the landscape of what you can do with a breakup album.

16:47at 5pm. We'll see you then.