I’ve now been your MP for just over six6 months, and it’s been a whirlwind of activity in both Westminster and here in Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven. In this week’s column, I want to focus on a concern I’m hearing loud and clear across my constituency: the rise in crime and anti-social behaviour. I’ll also cover a really important vote in Parliament this week on the Renters’ Rights Bill, which will make a huge difference to many people in my constituency and across Sussex.
Tackling anti-social behaviour. I was struck by an Argus article over the New Year highlighting that crime was rising more quickly in Sussex than in London or anywhere else in the South East. The main reason was the incredibly high increase – 48 per cent% – in shoplifting.
This underlines what many local businesses, shopworkers and residents have been telling me: that shoplifting and anti-social behaviour are now a daily occurrence in many of our communities. To give one example, my team and I recently spoke to businesses in St James’ Street, the bustling and vibrant high street at the western edge of my constituency. Of the first ten shops we visited, nine said that their staff had suffered physical attacks at work and all ten said that shoplifting in their stores and anti-social behaviour ion St James’ Street now happened at least once a day.
I’ve never accepted that this type of crime is “low-level”, “minor” or something we should tolerate. In pretty much every constituen.