does not utilise the government’s full resources and powers”, reflecting its low prioritisation of the issue in the past. In September, he announced that the first 50 air quality audits for primary schools in the worst-polluted areas of the city had been launched with the objective to reduce air pollution around public schools. The audits will continue until the end of 2017, with reports being published in 2018. Khan plans to construct a tunnel under the Thames in Greenwich, the Silvertown Tunnel, something which his office claims is needed to relieve traffic congestion. However, environmentalists say it will induce more demand and lead to worsening air quality and car dependency, leading the Green Party, Liberal Democrats, some Conservatives, and even some Labour MPs and mayors to come out against the project. In July 2021, the London Labour regional conference called for the tunnel to be scrapped, by 74% to 26%. Crime and policing Since Khan became Mayor, crime rates in London have been increasing in every reporting year, whereby London is currently "experiencing an upsurge in serious violent crime, particularly among teenagers and young men". In figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), crime in London was five times higher than the rest of the United Kingdom in 2019. Killings using a blade saw a 28 percent increase from 67 in 2018 to 86 in 2019. While knife crime in London fell for three years in a row, down from 14,159 in 2010–2011 to 9,680 in 2014–15, under Boris Johnson, Khan's predecessor as Mayor of London, Khan has presided over an increase in knife crime to 12,061 offences in 2016–17 and 14,695 in 2017–18. In February 2018, reported murders in London exceeded those in New York City for the first time. London recorded 45 murders during January through March 2018 whereas New York recorded 38. In an interview with LBC, Khan accepted responsibility for rising crime in London as the Police and Crime Commissioner for the city, but blamed budgetary cuts by the UK Conservative Government. Khan stated that knife crime is "rising across England & Wales" and that it is "clearly a national problem that requires national solutions." Following the 2019 London Bridge stabbing Khan stated, “You can’t disaggregate terrorism and security from cuts made to resources of the police, of probation, the tools that judges have … The key thing is we need to support the