We’re out on the street for a matter of seconds before PCs David Parker and Jake Dean shoot off on their bikes through the pre-Christmas traffic. They are in pursuit of an e-scooter being ridden on the pavement near London’s Liverpool Street Station.

It’s illegal to use privately-owned e-scooters in public in the UK. The officers seize it and take it to “the cage” – a lock-up behind nearby Bishopsgate police station – from where it will be taken away and crushed.

Then, the officers are straight onto their next target – a powerful e-bike that can reach speeds far higher than the 15.5 mph allowed by law.

City of London Police sergeant Stu Ford says they could be out doing this all day, every day. They’ve confiscated more than 400 electric vehicles, which can hit speeds of up to 75 mph, in the 18 months since he relaunched the force’s bike unit, to help tackle phone snatching along with drug and road offences.

Many of those belonged to food delivery riders or commuters, including a high-powered stockbroker, who, he says, may not have been aware they were breaking the law. But they’re “also being used for all sorts of criminality” adds Sergeant Ford.

Figures obtained by Sky News suggest crimes involving e-bikes and e-scooters have soared by more than 730% in the last five years.

The data released by police forces in England and Wales in response to freedom of information requests reveals tens of thousands of offences, such as theft, robbery and burglary, have been linked to the vehicles since 2019.

The figures also include crimes such as drug trafficking, stalking, arson, sexual offences including rape, violent crimes and weapons offences.

Sgt Ford says he’s not surprised by the rise in crime, with the availability of electric vehicles so much greater than five years ago.

He says criminals are attracted to them because of their relatively low cost compared to motorbikes or mopeds – a good model can sell for under £1,000 – and discreteness – they’re not picked up by automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras.

A total of 11,266 crimes were recorded in the year 2023/24 that mentioned electric bike, e-bike, electric scooter, or e-scooter, up from 1,354 in 2019/20 – a 732% rise, according to the data released by 36 of the 43 territorial forces in England and Wales.

In one incident in North Wales last year, a woman and her partner were followed by two males on an e-bike, one who was holding a knife, in an apparent bid to steal their scooter.

The same force disclosed details of crimes including a victim who was robbed of his e-bike by people “brandishing machetes and knives”, and another who was repeatedly punched to the head by an offender who tried to steal his electric vehicle.

The true figures will be far higher as two of the country’s largest forces – the Metropolitan Police and West Midlands Police – were unable to supply data.

Separate figures released by the Met, however, show 352 robberies, or around one a day, were committed last year in London alone by a suspect riding an e-bike.

The figure was a rise of more than 40% from the 250 robberies in 2022/23 and a more than 260% increase from the 97 the previous year, although the force didn’t start recording such offences until mid-June 2021.

“I’m not surprised there’s a huge increase in crimes in relation to e-scooters and e-bikes,” says Sgt Ford, who acknowledges “phone snatchers are getting very good at what they do”.

They’re “good cyclists” who often use bikes that have been illegally converted to have a motor more powerful than the 250 watts which is legally allowed, and even wear special sticky gloves so they can grab onto the phones, he says.

Sgt Ford says many are members of organised gangs, with different riders sometimes seen using the same bikes around the capital.

The number of “snatch thefts” soared by 150% with an estimated 78,000 people losing their phones or bags in England and Wales up to March 2024, according to the latest government figures.

Joyce Ong had her iPhone snatched out of her hand by an e-bike rider wearing a hoodie as she went to order an Uber outside North Harrow station, in northwest London, on Halloween.

“It was dark. There was no one about and someone came along from behind me – a dark shadowy figure – and snatched my phone while I was calling an Uber,” she says.

“He just rode from behind on the pavement at a very high speed.”

Joyce says she was left “shocked and confused”, and also inconvenienced by not being able to use her phone to run her business.

She says she reported the crime to the Metropolitan Police but got the impression they couldn’t prioritise her case. Three weeks later, she received a notification that her phone had ended up in Shenzhen, a city in southeastern China.

“I do think the Met Police may not have all the resources they need. It seems to be getting a bit out of control,” she says.

The Met said they’re “taking action to clamp down on phone thieves and robbers, with proactive and neighbourhood policing teams increasing patrols, including in plain clothes”.

“We are also working with local businesses to share information and using a range of tactics and technologies to bring perpetrators to justice.”

Last month the force said Kymani Wilson, 22, from Brent, northwest London, and Claude Parkinson, 25, from Islington, north London, were jailed after committing mobile phone robberies and thefts while riding e-bikes in the upmarket boroughs of Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea.

Sgt Ford insists police are “catching up” and his team have also enjoyed some high-profile successes, with other forces around the country now coming to him for advice.

Sonny Stringer, 28, from Islington, north London, was jailed for two years in August after stealing 24 phones in a single morning. He was doing speeds of up to 50mph on an electric motorbike.

The vehicles have also been linked to stabbings and shootings. Police in Birmingham found a loaded gun after tackling masked e-bike rider Antonio Balu, 25, when he raced away after officers spotted him acting suspiciously, and he was later jailed for five years.

They are also increasingly popular with drug dealers, says Sgt Ford. “They can go around almost unseen,” he says. “If you’re in a vehicle, then you’ve got a registration plate or a motorbike or a moped. With these, you’re just riding a bike around.”

Some shops, he says, are selling powerful e-bikes for up to £2,000 without warning customers they can’t be used on public roads, while there are kits available online which allow people to convert a pedal cycle into an illegal e-bike relatively easily.

“Food delivery guys will ride up onto the pavements, weaving in and out of people. We get accidents happening more and more now where they’re hitting pedestrians,” he says.

“It is increasing all the time and it’s really dangerous. The speeds that these get up to – we’ve had ones that will do 75mph – the speed of a motorcycle.

“And if something that weighs the best part of 100kg hits you at 50, 60 mph, you’re probably not going to be around to talk about it.”

We have been here before and each time we have said “never again”.

Reacting to the verdicts, the children’s commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza said the case highlights “profound weaknesses in our child protection system”.

In a statement, she said: “Even before she [Sara Sharif] was born, she was known to social care – and yet she fell off their radar so entirely that by the time she died, she was invisible to them all.”

“Sara was failed in the starkest terms by the safety net of services around her,” she added.

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Leading safeguarding expert Simon Bailey told Sky News about missed opportunities by authorities to intervene: “Quite clearly the system failed her because she tragically died at a very, very young age where all the indications are that it could have been averted.”

Mr Bailey, a former National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection, blames “not enough professional curiosity” among social workers.

“Did they truly understand the significance of the harm that she was facing and that ultimately saw the appalling injuries that she sustained?” he asks. “Was information shared effectively?”

There had been previous allegations of abuse against both of Sara’s parents.

At birth in 2013 she was made the subject of a child protection plan, something that happens when children are deemed to be at risk.

The following year her parents separated. Sara was taken into foster care, before being returned first to her father, and then her mother, as each parent accused the other of abuse.

Four years later, in 2019, a battle in the family court led to Sara’s father, Urfan Sharif, being awarded custody.

Then, in March 2023, Sara’s school made a referral to Surrey social services. Teachers had become concerned about bruises on her face.

She’d given different explanations for them to two members of staff.

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Social workers contacted Sara’s father to tell him they were investigating, before running a multi-agency check on her background. The case was closed six days later.

Mr Bailey says that decision will need to be scrutinised.

“They should then have looked at the cumulative risk that Sara might have been exposed to, inevitably was being exposed to, and should then have been able to make a decision to mitigate those risks and considered what those child protection arrangements should look like,” he says.

That April, Sharif withdrew Sara from school. Months later she was dead.

The deaths of children who were known to social services have prompted major national reviews in recent years.

A report published the year before Sara’s death investigated the failures of social services in Solihull and Bradford to protect Arthur Labinjo Hughes, who died aged 7, and one-year-old Star Hobson.

Star’s family believe lessons don’t appear to have been learnt.

“How can this still keep on happening?” asks her great-grandfather David Fawcett.

“It’s been four years since we lost Star and I don’t even want to think about the number of children that have lost their lives in that four years,” her aunt, Alicia Szepler, tells Sky News.

Dr Ciaran Murphy, from the Association of Child Protection Professionals, says social workers are coming under increasing pressure.

“When practitioners are being faced with 40, 50, 60 cases a day, they are naturally going to be prioritising and there are going to be errors of judgement,” he says.

“The massive increase in demand has come about over the last 15 years, particularly because of cuts to public services and public spending, which meant that there are less services supporting families, more families are being pushed into the system, increased demand for social workers.

“One of the big issues that we have to confront is we are not investing enough in the child protection system in terms of monetary spending.”

Now the trial has concluded an independent safeguarding review will examine what more could have been done to protect Sara.

Rachael Wardell, the executive director responsible for children’s social services at Surrey County Council, said: “Sara’s death is incredibly distressing and we share in the profound horror at the terrible details that have emerged during the trial.

“We are resolute in our commitment to protecting children, and we are determined to play a full and active part in the forthcoming review alongside partner agencies to thoroughly understand the wider circumstances surrounding Sara’s tragic death.”

Ms de Souza has called for a series of reforms including “proper oversight” for children, like Sara, being home-schooled.

“We can have no more reviews, no more strategies, no more debate. When we say ‘never again’, we have to mean it – let that be Sara’s legacy,” she said.

The government is today demanding “immediate, mandatory” housing targets from councils as part of its plans to build 1.5 million houses by the next general election.

During its election campaign Labour promised to build swathes of new housing to address lack of affordability and supply.

And it will today release its latest version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), setting out the government’s homebuilding plans.

Under the NPPF, councils will have just 12 weeks to commit to a timetable for providing new homes in their area.

And if they fail to do so, ministers will “not hesitate” to impose a plan upon them, the government said, after less than a third of local authorities accepted a plan in the past five years.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “Our Plan for Change will put builders not blockers first, overhaul the broken planning system and put roofs over the heads of working families and drive the growth that will put more money in people’s pockets.

“We’re taking immediate action to make the dream of homeownership a reality through delivering 1.5 million homes by the next parliament and rebuilding Britain to deliver for working people.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said: “I will not hesitate to do what it takes to build 1.5 million new homes over five years and deliver the biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation.

“We must all do our bit and we must all do more. We expect every local area to adopt a plan to meet their housing need. The question is where the homes and local services people expect are built, not whether they are built at all.”

Labour’s plans involve an annual target of 370,000 new homes in England, in a bid to find living space for 1.3 million households on social housing waiting lists.

Councils with the most unaffordable housing and “greatest potential for growth” will have increased targets for building – and “stronger action” will be used to make sure plans are up to date.

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Part of the plans also includes a presumption that building on brownfield land will be approved.

However, Labour is also looking to target building on the green belt – including on the so-called “grey belt”.

According to Ms Rayner, this includes “disused car parks, petrol stations and low quality green belt”.

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Councils will also be required to “review their green belt boundaries to meet targets, identifying and prioritising lower quality ‘grey belt’ land”.

Building on the green belt will have to abide by Labour’s so-called “golden rules”: Brownfield first, grey belt second, affordable homes, boost public services and infrastructure, improve genuine green spaces.

As part of the scheme, there will be an extra £100m available for local authorities to hire staff and consultants – and more resources to carry out studies and site assessments.

This comes on top of a previous increase in planning fees to cover extra planning officers.

Councillor Adam Hug, the housing spokesperson for the Local Government Association, said housebuilding must take a “collaborative approach”.

He called for “any national algorithms and formulas” to be “supplemented with local knowledge”.

Mr Hug added that housing reform needs to be supported with work to “tackle workforce challenges” as well as the costs of construction.

Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative’s shadow housing secretary, says Labour have “consistently failed to deliver on housebuilding”.

“Labour will bulldoze through the concerns of local communities,” he said.

“If Labour really want homes to be built where they are needed, they must think again.”