The Mayor of London said more funding will be given to the police to tackle burglary and violent crime.

Sadiq Khan intends to increase his share of council tax by the maximum amount allowed by the government, in order to raise more money for officers

This is the second time that Mr Khan has increased the tax and last year the Met used £15m of additional City Hall funding to create the new Violent Crime Taskforce - a 272 team focusing on tackling incidents in the worse affected areas of London.

The unit made almost 2,500 arrests and took more than 1,000 dangerous weapons off the streets while in operation.

The latest Met figures show that Redbridge has an above average number of burglaries compared to other boroughs in the capital. In the 12 months prior to June 2018, there were 10.41 burglaries committed for every thousand residents.

Sutton was the lowest with a rate of 5.37 per thousand and the City of Westminster was the highest with 16.14 during the same time period.

A City Hall spokesman said burglary is rising across the capital and more resources will be invested to tackle it.

“There will be a major boost for Met Trace, the Met’s flagship burglary prevention programme which involves officers visiting homes to provide Londoners with crime prevention advice and delivering property-marking kits, which will significantly widen coverage and protect homes across the capital,” he said.

“Local police will continue to focus on work to prevent burglary and target those responsible.”

Mr Khan said the causes of violent crime are extremely complex and involve deep-seated problems like poverty, inequality, social alienation and a lack of opportunities for young people.

He explained that it has been made much worse by huge government cuts to the police and preventative services and added: “Crime figures also show we need to do even more to tackle burglary and that’s why we are using my funding to increase the rollout of more anti-burglary kits across London,” he added.

“Our increased proactive approach to supporting victims of residential burglary, with a focus on pursuing investigations, providing reassurance and tailored crime prevention advice, will bolster the police’s response to this invasive crime.”

Commissioner Cressida Dick said the extra money generated from the increase in council tax precept is crucial.

“The reduction in budgets and police numbers in recent years combined with increased demands has been a challenge and this extra money will enable us to begin to recruit more officers and staff to provide greater capacity to tackle violence, increase our response to the growing threat of online child sexual exploitation, and deal with other key areas of concern such a burglary.

“We will support officers more, including with investment in technology and equipment, to make sure that every officer can be as effective as possible in preventing crime, solving more crime and bringing more offenders to justice.”