Enfield no longer has the highest rate of serious youth violence in London after a fall in the number of offences.

There were 377 serious youth violence victims in the year to February 2019 – a 5.8 per cent drop on the previous year’s figure, according to the Metropolitan Police.

It means the borough has the third-highest rate of serious youth violence in the capital, behind Southwark and Westminster (which have the joint-highest rate) and Haringey.

Enfield’s rate of serious youth violence was the highest in London in the year to November, with a total of 397 offences.

The rate subsequently fell after extra police numbers were deployed to the borough to tackle the situation.

Serious youth violence – defined as “any offence of most serious violence or weapon-enabled crime where the victim is aged 1 to 19” – will be on the agenda at the council’s crime scrutiny panel, which is due to meet this Thursday (March 28).

The Met Police figures show the number of gun crime offences in Enfield decreased by 11.5 per cent to 108 in the year to February.

There were also falls in rape, domestic abuse and anti-social behaviour.

But knife crime offences rose by 9 per cent year-on-year to a total of 621 offences, while the number of residential burglaries climbed by 13.5 per cent to reach 2,496.

The borough’s high crime rate has been an ongoing topic of debate in Enfield’s council chamber.

Labour councillors have blamed government cuts to police funding for increased crime, while Conservatives have accused the Mayor of London and the council of failing to make the best use of the available resources to crack down on criminal activity.

Enfield Council recently agreed to spend £1 million over two years on reducing the rate of youth crime.

The crime scrutiny panel will meet at Enfield Civic Centre at 7.30pm on Thursday, March 28.