Prime Minister Rishi Sunak discusses Sussex issues on visit to county: Shoplifting, council budgets, housing, potholes and policing

Mr Sunak visited Horsham to launch a crackdown on retail crime, with assaulting a retail worker to be made a standalone criminal offence.

The PM met the Sussex Police Crime and Commissioner Katy Bourne, and Chief Constable Jo Shiner, to discuss the new legislation during a visit to Horsham town centre this morning (Wednesday, April 10).

The Prime Minister spoke to reporters at the Boots store in Swan Walk.

Shoplifting

Mr Sunak said an area of ‘increasing concern’ in the retail climate is shoplifting.

"People would have seen it happens on social media, it's absolutely not acceptable,” he said. “It's particularly not right that our shop workers are having to deal with it.

“And I understand this acutely having grown up working in my mum's a small pharmacy shop in Southampton. Today we outlined a range of measures to help us clamp down on retail crime, including a new offence for assaulting a retail shop worker. This has been welcomed but also greater use of electronic tagging and monitoring of prolific offenders and then lastly the use of facial recognition technology and CCTV to catch and apprehend people.

"It builds on the work that we did last year, with the retail industry to pursue criminals of retail theft and I’m pleased that the plans today have been warmly welcomed and they'll make a difference and talking to the team here they're excited that we've got their back.”

Mr Sunak was put to task over the fact that BBC figures show that prosecutions for shoplifting have been going down in Sussex, Surrey and Kent.

He replied: “What is important that we tackle what has become an increasing problem and that's why last year we set out Operation Pegasus which is a collaboration between the police and the retailers to better tackle retail crime.

"Importantly, the NPCC, the National Police Chiefs Council agreed with the government that they would pursue all reasonable lines of inquiry when it came to shoplifting and that was a very specific and important intervention and the greater use of technology.

"For example, CCTV matched with facial recognition on the police database that we've announced today, will make it more likely that we can catch criminals.

"As we've seen here today, retailers are also innovating and taking steps, for example, body worn cameras, which are an innovation that helps so actually, I'm confident that given the measures we've been announced today building on what we announced last year, we will now see very strong progress in tackling this and crucially keeping our shop workers safe.”

Potholes

Amid the news that roads in the UK are at ‘breaking point’ due to potholes, Sussex World launched a campaign – calling for immediate action to improve the worsening situation in West Sussex and beyond.

Many drivers have suffered damage to their cars and action needs to be taken. A new report from The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) said councils were expected to fix two million potholes in the current financial year – that is 43 per cent higher than the previous year and confirms repairs are at an eight-year high.

The Prime Minister said: “Most people use their car to get around everyday and we can never lose sight of that. I'm very keen that we support motorists.

"That's why I made the decision to change track on HS2 and take a chunk of the money we would have spent and invest that around the country into road maintenance, including here in Sussex. We just need well maintained roads and potholes filled.

“That's what people are focused on and what people raise with me when it comes to transport. There is now nationally, something like eight billion pounds more invested in roads maintenance in Sussex.

"More generally, we want to back motorists. A plan on our website. Making sure that 20mph speed limits are not imposed on local communities, topped down, against their will. We want to support people who rely on their cars.

"That's why we've frozen fuel duty and put out guidance on 20mph limits. Most importantly, we have taken HS2 money and invested it into local roads to fill potholes and help people get around."

Council budgeting

The Prime Minister was about council finances. A lot of councils, particularly in Sussex, are facing bankruptcy. Brighton and Hove City Council said it is £400m pound in debt; Crawley Borough Council said it is facing £249m in debt; whilst Hastings and Eastbourne councils have been very vocal on that they need more money from the government to help fund emergency accommodation for vulnerable people.

Mr Sunak was asked what his government will do to help funds these councils and help them stay afloat to make sure that they are able to provide essential services.

He responded: “In the most recent settlement for local government we provided around 600 million pounds of extra funding, which means on average, and it will vary by council, but on average, councils will have about seven and a half per cent more money to spend this year than they had last year in cash terms, so that's. A rough average because of the extra over half a billion pounds of funding that we've put in particularly to help with social care.

"Where of course, we know there are pressures and actually since I became chief secretary and then chancellor over the course of this Parliament, what you've seen is that the grant from central government to local government has risen every single year above inflation.

"We are investing in local communities directly through our levelling up funds, our town funds – whether that's in Crawley or down in Hastings or Bexhill or Eastbourne. All places receiving tens of millions pounds in funding in levelling up in their high streets and town centres. Putting local people in charge of how to spend that money.”

Under new government law, serial or abusive shoplifters will face tougher punishments as the Prime Minister sets out tough new action to crack down on retail crime and protect UK highstreets.

However, Mr Sunak was questioned if this will be easier said than done because a recent poll by Sussex police federations showed that 84 per cent of Sussex Police officers said they're now financially worse off than they were five years ago and struggling with the cost of living.

The PM was asked how he is going to keep police officers in their jobs to deliver this policy.

He responded: “I would like to say thanks to all our police officers in Sussex and across the country with an incredible job, they do keeping our safe. One of our signature manifesto commitments was putting 20,000 more police officers on our street and I’m pleased that we deliver there. And that's what people want to see, and it's right that we've delivered on that.

“We also accept that in full the recommendations of the independent pay review body last year which was for around about seven per cent increase for last year for police officers. We've accepted that in full and we're continuing to back our police and, when I talk to them, I’m making sure we're cutting bureaucracy for them, but also giving them the powers they need to tackle crime.

“Katie [Bourne] will talk to some of that here we are seeing similar results in Sussex which is great. But you mention the cost of living and that's why when I first got this job I said my number one priority was to halve inflation, I'm pleased that we've delivered on that.

“Inflation is now down from 11 per cent to around three and a half and at the start of this year you can see the economy has turn to corner, not just inflation, but wages have now been rising for several months in a row ahead of prices. Taxes are being cut by 900 pounds. That's just kicked in the last few weeks, pensions are rising by £900

"Energy bills are tumbling by hundreds of pounds. Inflation is expected to hit target in the coming months and I think all of that demonstrates that our plan is working. I want to give people piece of mind that there's a brighter future ahead.

"There’s financial security for them and their family if we stick to our plan.”

Housing

Finally, Mr Sunak was asked who should have the biggest say in where houses are built – developers, local communities or the government.

"It's the local communities,” he said. “We don't believe in imposing topped down housing targets on local areas. That's absolutely not right.

"We've got a good track record in Parliament of building homes. We are delivering a million homes exactly as we said.

"Crucially, we are doing that in the right places. Prioritising brownfields with extra funding and working with local communities to protect green spaces but get housing built. We strongly believe that everyone should own a home. That's important to me and the government. We can't impose things on local communities.”