Croydon was the worst place in the whole of London for violent crime in the past year, according to a shocking report published this morning based on official figures from the Office for National Statistics.
The figures show Croydon having three times as much violent crime as neighbouring boroughs such as Sutton and Merton, recalling the time, four years ago, when Croydon was labelled “the knife crime capital of London”.
With 3,214 incidents of “violence with injuries”, ranging from actual bodily harm to life-threatening assaults in the year to June 2025, Croydon had 6% more than the next worst borough in London, city centre Westminster (3,006).
Lambeth, with 2,788 such crimes, was the next worst borough in the capital for violence with injuries.
False security: selective messaging from the council is contradicted by the ONS figures
With 781 such crimes, Richmond had the fewest number of violence with injury reports. Kingston (875), Merton (1,120) and Sutton (1,296) were all in the bottom five of London’s 32 boroughs and the City of London for crimes in this category.
The figures, published this morning by The Standard, starkly contradict the messaging that has been put out by Croydon Mayor Jason Perry which try to claim that Croydon’s crime levels are in some ways getting better.
The ONS figures show that in London as a whole, the levels of knife crime have barely changed in the past year: 15,689 in the 12 months to June 2025, compared to 15,707 in the year before that. London saw more than 30% of all knife crime across England and Wales (51,527) in the year to June.
In total, there were almost 1million crimes – 949,420 – reported to the Metropolitan and City of London police forces, down by 5%, in a year when there were 101 homicides in our capital – the lowest death toll for more than 20 years.
Capital picture: how the ONS’ violent crime figures map out across London
Last year, London recorded the fewest killings of under-25s for more than two decades and the fewest of teenagers since 2012 .
Across the capital, violence with injury offences were down by 14%, to 65,215.
There were 96,227 reports of shoplifting, up 37%, and 27,344 sexual offences (up 11%).
But other categories of reported crime reduced: 33,752 robberies (down 4%), 465,085 thefts (down 4%) and 33,491 burglaries (down 8%).
“The Met has launched a proactive approach to tackling serious violence with specialist teams disrupting more organised crime groups, tackling drug dealing and county lines, while safeguarding those being exploited,” The Standard reports.
“This has led to thousands of arrests and the seizure of stockpiles of deadly weapons.”
City Hall also says that there has been a 10% fall in hospital admissions of under-25s for knife assaults.
Looking for progress: Labour’s policing minister, Croydon MP Sarah Jones
Sarah Jones, MP for Croydon West, is the Labour government’s crime and policing minister. She said: “This government is making real progress in protecting vulnerable young people, homicide rates have hit their lowest levels since the 1970s and knife crime is down.
“But we know that any life lost is one too many and we are not complacent as we seek to halve knife crime over the next decade.”
She added: “We also know that the levels of shop theft and street crime that this Government has inherited are utterly unacceptable.”
The Met’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Ward said: “We’re targeting those whose reckless actions risk the safety of our city, dismantling organised crime groups and diverting people away from criminality with support and help from partners and our communities.
“These are all positive steps forward in our mission to make London safer, but we won’t stop here. No family should never have to bury a loved one and we’ll continue to do everything we can to keep ensuring fewer people are impacted by the scourge of violence and fewer lives are lost.”
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