Every high street should be a place where families feel safe, businesses can thrive, and communities come together, but for too long, too many have been allowed to fall into decline.
Last week in Westminster Hall, I stood to debate police visibility on our high streets not just as a Member of Parliament, but as a woman who has walked the streets of Erdington for nearly 4 decades. First as a mother pushing a pram and buying essentials for my children, then as a nurse caring for patients in a community too often left behind, and now as the voice of a constituency that for too long has been told it does not matter.
When I was first elected in 2022, Erdington High Street had already been in decline for years. Crime had taken hold. Shoplifting, drug dealing, and antisocial behaviour had become so normalised that traders feared for their stock, while families and pensioners avoided the area altogether. The cost was staggering, £7million a year in lost trade. Worse still, a community stripped of its confidence.
The simple truth is this, crime is not inevitable. It is the result of choices. Choices to slash budgets. Choices to hollow out neighbourhood policing and cut 21,000 officers. Choices to tell communities, “You are on your own.”
But today, Erdington is proving something powerful. With the right choices, hope can replace fear.
From day one, I got to work. I brought together high street traders, the police, Birmingham City Council, Erdington BID, community groups, and residents who had simply had enough. We built something new, a coalition of people who loved Erdington and demanded better for it. Together, we spoke with one voice: “Erdington deserves better.” We needed action, not empty promises or short-term fixes.
And that action came. Working with West Midlands Police, we secured £880,000 from the Proceeds of Crime Fund, money seized from criminals, to launch Operation Fearless, a targeted crackdown on the gangs, drugs, knives, and exploitation poisoning our high street.
The results speak for themselves. Over 140 arrests. Weapons seized. A 25-old drug dealer jailed for 4 years. But Operation Fearless was never just about arrests. It was about partnerships. We worked with the council, local businesses, and residents to clean graffiti, repair shutters, and make our high street a place people could be proud of again.
And that pride is returning. Traders now say the difference is like night and day. One shopkeeper told me, “For the first time in years, I feel hopeful.” That hope is why I fought for this debate. Because every community deserves what Erdington is beginning to see. Hope.
Erdington’s story is not unique. Across the country, from Bristol to Bolton, high streets have become battlegrounds. Retail crime has surged by 127% since 2021. Shop workers, many of them young women, face daily abuse, intimidation, and violence. It is an injustice that USDAW’s Freedom From Fear campaign has been fighting for more than 20 years.
But for too long, previous governments dismissed this as low-level crime. Officers were cut. Patrols vanished. Communities, traders, and retail workers were left to fend for themselves. No one should face threats just for doing their job. And as Operation Fearless has shown, when we invest in prevention and rebuild partnerships, we can protect them.
To the Government, I say this. Fund partnerships, not just patrols, because police cannot rebuild trust alone. Protect retail workers. Tackle retail crime with the seriousness it deserves. And invest in prevention, because as a former nurse, I know it is cheaper to stop crime than to heal the wounds it leaves behind.
Labour’s pledge of 13,000 new officers is a start, but they must reach the frontline, not disappear into bureaucracy.
Now that Operation Fearless has taken its proven model to the next struggling community, our fight here continues. We must now secure long-term investment, embed community-led policing, and ensure every corner of Erdington, Kingstanding, Castle Vale, and South Oscott feels the same safety and pride returning to our high streets.
Erdington’s lesson is clear. When we listen, act, and invest, change happens. And that change, and that hope, is now needed on every high street across Britain.
