London homicides at 11-year low, Met Police says

Homicide in London has fallen to its lowest level in more than a decade, new figures released by the Metropolitan Police show.

The force said 97 homicides were recorded in 2025, the lowest figure since 2014, at a rate of 1.1 per 100,000 people, lower than New York (2.8), Berlin (3.2) and Milan (1.6).

It is the lowest homicide figure in London on record, once population is taken into account, the Met said.

Teenage homicide, which hit record levels in 2021 when 30 young people lost their lives, has also dropped to the lowest level since 2012, with eight teenagers killed last year.

The figures released by the Met come as the latest crime figures for England and Wales also show a fall in the number of homicides to their lowest level since current methods of reporting began in 2003.

Some 518 homicides were recorded by police in the year to June 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), a drop of 6% from 552 in the previous year and 27% below the pre-pandemic total of 710 in 2019-20.

Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said that while "every murder is a tragedy," fewer families had been "shattered" by violence.

The leader of the London Conservatives Susan Hall praised the force but said more needed to be done to tackle other crimes including violence against women and girls.

Sir Mark said the fall in homicide was a result of targeted police action against organised criminal gangs and greater use of technology including live facial recognition.

"It's the product of amazing police work as we attack with ever more precision the most dangerous men who carry weapons, who groom children into gangs, who prey on women," he said.

The commissioner also praised prevention work, including by London's Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) which was created by Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan in 2019. Sir Mark said it had played an important part in turning around the lives of teenagers targeted by drug dealers.

The VRU delivers targeted interventions aimed at preventing young people being drawn into gangs and violence, including placing youth workers in police custody and hospitals and tackling school exclusions.

Of the eight teenagers who lost their lives to violence last year, the youngest was 14-year-old Kelyan Bokassa who was repeatedly stabbed as he sat on a bus in Woolwich.

VRU director Lib Peck said "there is clearly more to do", but that the data showed they were making "consistent" progress.

She added: "When we were set up more than six years ago, London's homicide rate of young people was three times higher than it is today."

Sir Mark acknowledged that some Londoners would still not feel the city was a safe place to live and suggested social media content, in "ever more angry, polarised, partisan times" played a part.

"The truth is ever less present and it's more about opinion or mischief. That's why using something as objective as this is one important way to say, 'OK, London is relatively safe.'"

Sir Sadiq said many people had "been trying to talk London down".

"Whether it's President Donald Trump, whether it's politicians concentrated in Europe, this country, or other parts of the world, I can understand why they hate London," the mayor said.

"We are diverse, we are progressive, we are liberal, we are successful, but even the harshest critics of London would have to accept these figures are remarkable."

There has been a long-running spat between Sir Sadiq and US President Trump, who last year accused the mayor of doing a "terrible job" and said "crime in London is through the roof".

The commissioner and the mayor are also under pressure to improve confidence in policing following a series of scandals.

Last week, an internal Met Police review, which examined a 10-year period up to the end of March 2023, revealed 131 officers and staff committed crimes or misconduct after they were not properly vetted.

One officer, Cliff Mitchell, was allowed to join the force in 2020 after a vetting panel, partly aimed at improving diversity, overturned a decision to reject him despite a previous child rape allegation.

Hall accused the mayor of "cherry-picking figures" and raised concerns about rising violence against women and girls, as well as grooming gangs she has said are operating in London.

Hall said: "These figures have to be looked at in the whole.

"Where it's improving, I absolutely applaud the Met, but let's not just signpost to certain figures, because that's what the mayor always does.

"Women are not feeling safe at the moment and some of the statistics coming out are showing they are not as safe as they used to be."

She said that some of the videos shared on social media about crime in London warned people to be cautious about wearing expensive jewellery and watches.

"A phone is stolen every six minutes, so perhaps it warns people to be careful in that instance.

"There is a possibility of scaring people. It might make people more vigilant."

The mayor said the Met was targeting the most dangerous sexual offenders identified under the V100 scheme and taking action against gangs who steal mobile phones.

According to the ONS both homicide and knife crime recorded by police in England and Wales fell last year.

However, since the pandemic knife-enabled offences have been on the rise in London - although a slight reduction has been recorded in the latest year-on-year figures. The number of such offences recorded by the Met in the 12 months to June 2025 stood at 15,639, slightly below the 15,644 offences in the 12 months to June 2024.

The ONS data also showed violence with injury fell by 14%, although sexual offences rose by 11%.

Shoplifting and mobile phone theft have also soared over recent years.

However, the VRU says the number of NHS hospital admissions of under-25s who have been injured with knives has fallen by 43% since 2019.

Roisin Kelville, operations manager for hospitals at the St Giles charity, which has youth workers based inside four London hospitals, said there was "a clear indicator" that its work was having an impact.

The team is available to support young people if they are brought to hospital after being stabbed or shot, with the aim of diverting them from becoming drawn into further violence.

Kelville said: "When you're a young person, walking around with transgenerational trauma, all this hardship in life as a young person, if you press that one button at the wrong time, that young person's exploding, because they can't control their emotions."

She said that in 2023, 229 young people were referred to them, and this number fell to 150 last year. During the school summer holidays, violence normally peaks but Kelville said the numbers had dipped over the past two years.

"The VRU has created a '21st Century of the village' mentality," she said.

"They say 'it takes a village to raise a child' and for various reasons, the village has depleted. There's a massive collective effort now."

However, Melville said she was concerned about continuous long-term funding.

"We've got a model that's working. We can't stop now because we've seen a massive drop [in referrals], we need to keep the momentum going."

Oliur Rahman, the co-chief executive officer of Active Communities Network, also called for long-term and sustainable funding, but said it needed to be channelled towards grass-roots community groups.

His organisation leads a network of teams in Southwark known as MyEnds, who he described as local "unsung heroes" for building trust among Londoners, particularly from diverse or deprived backgrounds, who had lost confidence in authorities.

Rahman said young people now had more support, following years of cuts to policing and youth centres.

"There was no-one there then to divert them off the streets. Their parents had no-one to talk to. Statutory services are oversubscribed with young people, and that's where the youth work now has played a big impact in reducing that violence against young people."

The Met has forecast that by March of this year the number of police officers will have dropped to 31,258, down from 33,766 in May 2024, as it faces a £20m budget gap.

Sir Mark acknowledged it was a "tough" environment but said the force was continuing to make progress in tackling crime.

"What we have to do is get sharper and more precise," he said. "That's why we're investing in data and technology, because it helps us find the most dangerous people, and if you get them off the streets it makes the biggest difference."