Sadiq Khan visits Chance UK, a mentoring charity in Old Street

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THE mayor of London has admitted that Londoners “don’t feel safe” as he visited a mentoring charity in Old Street this week.

Sadiq Khan’s visit to Chance UK came as he announced the successful rollout of a mentoring programme to more than 100,000 young people in across the city.

“What we’ve seen is that those young people who receive a mentor … have improved relationships with adults, improved mental health, improved educational outcomes, improved employment outcomes, [are] less likely to get involved in crime, improves their socio and emotional ­circumstances,” he said.

The mayor said 2024 saw the lowest levels of teenage murders in more than a decade, but admitted that more needed to be done to “tackle the complex causes of crime”.

He said: “Without in any way excusing criminality, we know that deprivation, poverty, alienation, [and] lack of opportunities drives crime. We know since the cost of living crisis began crime has gone up, particularly acquisitive crime.”

Despite falling rates of under-25 knife injury and a reduction in personal robbery, parents continue to fear for their children.

The Tribune has been reporting on the dozens of parents in the Old Street area taking to the streets to carry out “parent patrols” in response to a spate of muggings, some at knife-point. They have said that they rarely see police on the streets and have criticised the Met’s inaction.

Mr Khan said: “I accept that the perception is still there. People don’t feel safe, and it’s really important that they feel safe. It’s no consolation to me when I’m told that Londoners don’t feel safe when you see crime going down.”

He added: “We’ve got to make sure we feel safe. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve more than doubled the amount of funding the police service receives, to have more police officers, not just being out and about making us safe, but making us feel safe as well.”

Bella, 13, who has received a mentor through Chance UK, said: “I think having police on the street will make you feel safer, but I think there’s this whole thing where police think that, if there’s a situation, the kids are the ones in the wrong when they don’t know the whole situation.”

She added: “I think it really depends because there are lots of people who obviously don’t trust the police because of things that have happened that are obviously not good.”

Bella’s mentor, Chante Jones, warned that teenagers still feel that they are in danger.

“There’s no need to sugarcoat it,” she said. “A lot of their environments and the areas they live in aren’t safe.”

She added: “But it is all down to, when we identify the problems that young people are struggling with, we need to support them from then. We don’t need to wait for something to happen, for them to get into violence, and then help them, we need to help them from as soon as they present with struggles.”

Bella said having a mentor allowed her to “talk about anything”.

“Chante doesn’t pity me. It’s just like I can just talk with her normally about random things that I can’t really talk about with other people. So it’s just nice to be able to talk,” she said.

Chance UK has received £1.2million of funding from the mayor’s office as part of his “New Deal for Young People”.

“It’s absolutely extraordinary,” said Vanessa Longley, the charity’s CEO. “The mayor’s commitment to supporting 100,000 kids get mentoring across London is an amazing commitment.”