Over the past few weeks and months my office has been contacted more and more from shopkeepers across the constituency regarding a worsening situation of anti-social behaviour directed towards them and their shops.

In response to this my office team and I developed a questionnaire and sent it out to all the shopkeepers across Wansbeck from Morpeth, Ashington, Newbiggin, Bedlington, Choppington and everywhere else in between. The was a chance for these shopkeepers to have their voice heard as well as allowing us to be better informed on what exactly is going on and how I as the Member of Parliament could help.

The responses we got back painted a stark picture of a wave of crime across all our towns in particular in the most deprived pockets. Almost 90% of responses agreed that anti-social behaviour was getting worse, with rises in levels of vandalism, theft, and abuse directed towards shopkeepers.

Why this is the case is likely down to a toxic mix of underlying factors. One is inevitably the massive cuts made to frontline services over the past 12 years as a result of austerity that have left the police with a budget cut to the bone and unable to effectively do their job.

Northumbria police have lost more than 1,100 police offers and had to find almost £150m in budget cuts since austerity measures were introduced by the coalition government in 2010. With a fresh round of austerity set to be on the way this will sadly only become even worse.

But cuts have not only come to the police. Youth services have been cut to the bone and the cost of living crisis means more and more families with children are being priced out of paying for extracurricular activities.

While there are a range of organisations there to support struggling families this simply does not make up for secure, well paid jobs. The North East continues to have the highest rate of unemployment in the UK while in work poverty is skyrocketing at a frightening pace thanks to low wages.

The reasons behind this spike in anti-social behaviour are likely to be down to a range of complex socio-economic factors. But we can also fall into the trap of over complicating things. It does not take a genius to work out that cutting public services and the police to the bone alongside rising levels of poverty and low wages will increase the risk of crime.

I look forward to working alongside the shopkeepers in the constituency going forward as well as continuing to campaign against these deeply damaging cuts.