Last month we hosted the first of a series of Serious Violence Summits in partnership with Redbridge and Havering – with 250 people attending and more than 200,000 people reached online.

We got together to say that in this part of east London enough is enough. We will lead as local authorities to bring the entire community together, so we can all do what we can to try to stop violent crime and address growing concerns about it.

It must be acknowledged that large scale change will only result from a change in government policy. Cuts to the Met Police totalling £1billion by 2022, and the loss of more than 4,000 police officers and 3,000 community support officers since 2010 – while 1,000,000 more people have made London their home – have had a real and noticeable impact on London’s streets including here. But we can’t wash our hands it. It was really important we had the police, schools, the NHS, faith and community groups, and the families of victims in the same room to start to unpack the root causes of violent crime, what steps can be taken to prevent it, and how best to support victims.

Valuable discussions took place – but we need to build on that to deliver actions which will make a difference. One of those in Barking and Dagenham will be a commission looking into domestic violence.

Firstly this will look into what more we can do to make sure everybody acknowledges the scale of domestic violence. And secondly it will examine what we can do to educate and support young people to break the cycle of violence that often leads on from seeing violence in a domestic setting.