Retail Crime: Effects

Lord Monks Excerpts

Thursday 5th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Monks (Lab)]

I add my congratulations to my noble and long-standing friend Lord Hannett of Everton on securing this important debate. As the noble Baroness, Lady Hazarika, has just said, my noble friend Lord Hannett was a distinguished and highly effective general secretary of USDAW, the shop and other workers’ union. USDAW has long been engaged in this campaign to secure more protection for retail workers, and I am very pleased that this campaign is now coming to fruition and success. It is evident that my noble friend Lord Hannett will continue henceforth to be a champion of retail workers in this House, and we look forward to that.

That will be really needed because, as others have said, violence in the retail sector and in some communities is increasingly endemic. My noble friend Lord Hannett quoted some of the terrifying statistics, and I will just pick out two that shocked me when I prepared for this debate. In the year before the election, street theft soared by 40% and shop theft by 29%. Anti-social behaviour reached new heights in our towns and cities.

What kind of country are we living in? It is a country where too often, I am afraid, gangs rule the roost, drugs are a major feature of local communities and the economy, and there is an avalanche of shop theft, with vulnerable staff being subject to intolerable levels of abuse and violence. Even people living in comfortable neighbourhoods are aware of the problem: 36% of people in England and Wales have experienced or witnessed some anti-social behaviour in their communities. Rural communities are also affected, not just the urban areas. Farmers did not used to lock up their machinery in Cambridgeshire. When I was a young man staying at a farm where my uncle worked, you could just go out, get the key off a hook, put it in the tractor and off you went. I bet they do not do that now; I bet they are all well locked up. This is not a country at ease with itself while all this kind of thing is going on. I suspect that there is much general angst about the state of Great Britain among our people today.

It is linked to the fact that our economy is stagnating, public services are struggling—you can point to very few of them and say that they are doing well; they are all hard pressed—the international outlook is grim and the scars of Brexit persist, holding back the economy in particular. There is much to do; the challenges for the Government are many and complex.

It was good to hear from the noble Lord, Lord Hanson, the other day, outlining the Government’s plans in this area. In his contribution, he brought verve and energy to the debate on the problem of crime in our communities. He also recognised that it will take more than a crackdown to tackle anti-social behaviour. Youth services and clubs, community centres, libraries and education centres—all of which help with socialising young people —have been badly cut in many areas. I take this opportunity to congratulate all those who have helped rescue the iconic Salford Lads and Girls Club, which was announced this week. Unfortunately, not every youth club has the same range of patrons willing to give generous donations as was the case in Salford.

A distinguished former Labour Prime Minister famously said:

“Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”.


That should always be the maxim of a UK Government. While I welcome the Government’s proposals—a new law to protect retail workers, introducing respect orders, tackling low-value shoplifting and increasing the number of police—they need to be accompanied by a recognition that economic growth nationally, and new vitality in our town centres, are very important. Poverty and crime walk arm in arm—one feeds the other.

The Government handled the summer riots very well—they were tough—and I hope they do as well with the criminality in our communities. If the objectives of growth, growth and growth are met, we will have every chance to make a huge difference to the problem that we now face and to create a happier country.