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Mayor of London launches £15.6 million fund to make public spaces safer for women and girls
Howard Lake | 25 September 2026 | News
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced a £15.6 million fund to work with women and girls on redesigning parks, streets and other public spaces across the capital, as part of a new strategy to tackle violence against women and girls.
The fund is a collaboration between City Hall, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and Transport for London. It will support local authorities to use the direct experience of women and girls in their areas to inform improvements such as better lighting and CCTV, the removal of blind spots, and the opening up of spaces that currently feel unsafe or poorly used.
It builds on a 2024 trial in which MOPAC and TfL worked with women and girls across five London boroughs on similar design questions.
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The fund forms part of a wider strategy to tackle violence against women and girls published on 4 September, backed by more than £37 million of additional investment. That includes:
- £6 million to tackle tech-enabled abuse
- £6 million for a third round of the Mayor’s VAWG Grassroots Fund supporting legal advice, counselling and other services delivered through local community organisations
- £3 million for a new service to help survivors into employment and financial independence
- £3 million for the Violence Reduction Unit’s work with young people on online harms
- £2.4 million for survivors of child sexual exploitation
- £1 million to counter the “manosphere” and online misogyny
- and £100,000 to extend the Mayor’s independent legal advice pilot for survivors of sexual violence.
Khan has now overseen £318 million of violence against women-related investment since becoming Mayor, and used the announcement to call the continuing scale of violence against women and girls “a global disgrace that shames us all”.
Charities’ response
Charities working in the sector welcomed the strategy. Nahar Choudhury, chief executive of Solace, said the organisation was “especially heartened” by the investment in engaging boys and young men, and in services supporting women’s financial independence from abusers, which she described as a major barrier for those trying to leave abusive relationships. London’s Victims Commissioner, Andrea Simon, welcomed the strategy’s focus on specialist support for victims’ recovery alongside prevention work.
The announcement draws on Home Office data showing 834,256 domestic abuse-related offences and 217,567 sexual offences were recorded by police in England and Wales in the year to March 2026, of which 74,727 were rape offences.
Mayor’s VAWG Grassroots Fund opens for applications
For fundraisers working in the VAWG and wider domestic abuse space, the Mayor’s Office’s announcement signals continued, and growing, public funding alongside charitable income in this area, and identifies the specific organisations City Hall regards as strategic partners.
The new Grassroots Fund round in particular is likely to be of direct interest to smaller community organisations delivering frontline services. Applications are open until 4 November 2026, with the largest grant size at £150,000.
The full VAWG strategy is available from the Mayor of London.
- £3 million available to help charities tackle violence against women and girls (17 August 2023)
- £100,000 from Women and Girls Fund split equally between 10 charities (25 November 2025)
- Inaugural Big Give women and girls match fund campaign announced (28 February 2022)
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.