He visited Ikea to discuss youth crime, safe spaces, and opportunities for young people in the borough.
He was joined by Sarah Jones, Labour MP for Croydon West today (January 12).
During the visit, Sir Keir highlighted the government’s first youth strategy in many years, which focuses on creating safe spaces and activities for young people in local communities.
He told Your Local Guardian: “Firstly, I think it’s really important that we put in safe spaces and activities for young people.
“We’ve just published the first youth strategy for many, many years and it focuses on what we can do locally to help and support young people.
“Because if you give young people something to do, then there’s a high likelihood that crime and other issues like that go down.
“If you don’t, you’re leaving children and young people to fend for themselves.”
Ms Jones admitted that Croydon has experienced some serious cases of youth violence in recent years but said there are signs of improvement.
She said: “We’ve had a few awful cases of young homicides, and those stats are really improving, homicides across London are falling quite dramatically.”
She mentioned the MyEnds programme, an award-winning initiative that brings people together to deliver community-led solutions to prevent violence.
The service provides support networks for parents and carers, after-school activities, youth work in neighbourhoods and youth clubs, as well as sports, music, arts, and drama activities.
“Through the MyEnds funding – that’s Sadiq Khan funds – there are safe spaces for women, work for kind of women and girls, as well as support for young boys who are at risk of getting into knife crime.
“I talk to the police a lot about how do we make sure we’re supporting girls and boys to make sure they’ve got the best opportunities.”
Since it was set up in April 2021, the programme has supported more than 50,000 young people and community members, delivered targeted interventions to more than 48,000 young people, held almost 600 community events each year, and provided small pots of funding for almost 70 grassroots organisations.
Lead partner Croydon Voluntary Action works alongside a consortium including Gloves Not Gunz, Reaching Higher, Palace for Life Foundation, Mentivity, P4YE, and Play Place.
The programme tackles criminal exploitation, gang involvement, violence against women and girls, and mental health challenges through detached outreach youth workers in the town centre, school-based mentoring, and sports and arts activities.
The prime minister also discussed the broader context of community regeneration in Croydon, highlighting Labour’s Pride in Place fund, which gives local communities control over how money is spent.
He said: “People want to see their town centre flourishing, a place that’s safe and secure.
“That’s what this money is for.”
In Croydon, the fund includes £20 million for New Addington and a further £1.5 million earmarked for the town centre.
The money is intended to support community initiatives, including youth facilities and programs designed to engage young people and reduce crime.
With years of council cuts, asset sales, and hundreds of millions needing financial support, many residents feel the borough is stuck in a cycle.
Sir Keir added: “We’ve increased and put in record funding now to local authorities.
“I’m not pretending that doesn’t mean it’s a challenge, but it does mean there’s more money going on.
“The second thing is that we listened to councils when they said, if you did the funding over a number of years rather than year on year, we could make better use of the money.
“So we’ve done longer term funding there.
“I think in Croydon, there are other measures that we’ve been able to take.”
