By Dee Corsi, CEO of New West End Company

Shoplifting is damaging London's reputation as a global city. The entire justice system must pull together to tackle it.

London's status as a world-renowned destination for culture and tourism remains secure, but recent research from the New West End Company has found that safety and policing concerns are holding the city back. Despite the new Prime Minister's devolution agenda, retail crime must be placed front and centre of justice reforms for the benefit of both the national economy and the country at large. London is a global city contributing a significant share of UK GDP, yet its police officer per capita ratio is nearly half that of Paris. This shortfall affects not only Londoners but also businesses, visitors, and prospective investors.

Against a challenging funding backdrop, every pound invested must deliver maximum return for public safety. The West End — home to Oxford Street, colloquially known as the "nation's high street" — has the potential to shift perceptions about crime in London and set an example for others. By building strong operational relationships between the Metropolitan Police Service, the Mayor of London, and Westminster City Council on behalf of 800 local businesses, the New West End Company has demonstrated how on-the-ground collaboration can help reduce crime. These partnerships deliver everything from more efficient intelligence sharing to covert operations designed to disrupt and deter prolific offenders, ultimately achieving greater security on the streets.

Data shows that this approach works, particularly in shaping visitors' perceptions. Contrary to alarmist media narratives and social media misinformation, visitors consistently rank their personal safety at eight out of ten or higher, even during busy periods.

The organisation's "open and safe" partnership puts that theory into practice. Last year, it signed a landmark agreement to share on-the-ground data with police in real time. A £4.5 million investment from the Mayor of London has funded a West End "Command Fusion Cell," which triages intelligence and coordinates rapid responses to incidents such as phone theft. Westminster City Council has also created the new role of Cabinet Member for Enforcement to address anti-social behaviour, illegal street trading, and the dumping of e-bikes and scooters.

While it is critical that the entire crime-tackling ecosystem is watertight, a robust criminal justice system with meaningful sentences for prolific offending is now needed.

Street-level enforcement is only half the story. Every arrest is resource-intensive — from security teams logging reports, to police compiling evidence, and retailers giving court statements. Yet prolific offenders regularly escape custodial sentences and return to the street within weeks. New data from the Met has revealed that just 104 prolific shoplifters were linked to 4,389 offences over the last two years — almost a third of all incidents where a suspect was identified. It took a minimum of 31 offences before any of those offenders received a custodial sentence. These figures echo a wider national surge in shoplifting, with police-recorded offences across England and Wales reaching record highs in recent years, according to Office for National Statistics data.

This is not solely a London problem. Nationally, 91 per cent of retailers in urban and rural areas experienced retail crime over the last 12 months, compared to 94 per cent for inner-city retailers. The British Retail Consortium has separately estimated that retail crime costs the sector well over £1 billion annually in losses and prevention spending, a figure that has climbed steadily as incidents of violence and abuse against shopworkers have also risen sharply.

Beyond Arrests

Stronger sentencing for repeat offenders would make perpetrators think twice. The government must recognise that these crimes are not opportunistic — they are, all too often, deliberate.

Strengthening existing deterrents is only the beginning. Many of the West End's prolific offenders have been known shoplifters for years. Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs), introduced in 2014 to replace the previous Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, are civil injunctions designed to ban individuals from a given area or impose specific restrictions on their conduct. Yet they are regularly ignored by prolific offenders who face few immediate consequences for doing so. Amending legislation so that breaching a CBO results in an immediate custodial sentence would increase public and business confidence and give teeth to an existing tool.

Over the next five years, the New West End Company is investing £23 million in security, including new 24/7 CCTV and an on-street security presence to ensure visitors feel safe and welcome. The organisation also welcomes recent plans from the Met to pilot permanent Live Facial Recognition technology in the district, a tool that has already been trialled in limited deployments across central London and that privacy advocates have scrutinised for its accuracy and civil liberties implications.

The justice system must take retail crime seriously. A new Prime Minister presents a fresh opportunity to call time on shoplifting. The West End's businesses, local authorities, and the Met are proving that collaboration works and that the district can lead by example. But partnerships are only as strong as their weakest link. Retail crime cannot be tackled through enforcement measures alone, and the government must recognise that a more robust approach to sentencing is critical to restoring confidence. Repeat offenders must face consequences that reflect the scale of harm caused to businesses and frontline staff.

Tackling crime in areas like the West End will have an outsized impact on crime across the capital. Making the West End safer can change how the world sees London and the UK as a whole.