Social landlords on front line of Home Office surge against bad behaviour
Whitehall renews push on ASBOs
Social landlords will be pushed to take a stronger line against problem tenants, as part of a drive to prosecute anyone who breaches an anti-social behaviour order.
In its latest drive against nuisance, the Home Office said it expected local crime and disorder reduction partnerships, which include councils, police and social landlords, to take anyone who breaches an ASBO to court.
The announcement, made on Tuesday by home secretary Alan Johnson, also set minimum standards for tackling anti-social behaviour.
The standards said partnerships must reduce perceptions of anti-social behaviour each year; ensure all cases were recorded and investigated and victims were updated on the action taken; publicise ASBOs to local people; and create better links between neighbourhood police and other local services.
People would also have a ‘right to complain’ to their CDRP if insufficient action was taken on anti-social behaviour. They could take their case to the police or local authority ombudsman if the CDRP did not respond adequately.
The Home Office also singled out 62 local authority areas where more than a quarter of residents feel anti-social behaviour is a big problem. The areas will be visited by an anti-social behaviour expert from the Home Office and also a practitioner from the department’s anti-social behaviour action squad if performance does not improve.
The areas include some usually held up as models of good practice in the field, such as Manchester and Nottingham.
Mr Johnson also announced £2.8 million programme to set up a network of 85 victim and witness champions. These will be professionals drawn from local support services or agencies. They will act as a single point of reference for victims and witnesses and ensure they get support.
Peter Jackson, managing director of the Social Landlords’ Crime and Nuisance Group, said support was also needed for witnesses in county court cases, which handle the majority of incidents dealt with by social landlords.
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Readers' comments (2)
ajv | 18/10/2009 10:01 pm
Alan Johnson's advisors appear not to have spoken to any frontline workers because if they had they would realise that ASBOS have become a badge of honour for many young people. His insistance on focusing on ASBOs is misplaced. He needs to start looking at the alternatives.
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Joe Halewood | 19/10/2009 11:51 am
Assertive is a better word to describe one of the authorities mentioned above. They spent 170k in legal fees to have a 13 year-old boy excluded from a number of streets - hardly good practice or a good use of public money.
Yet the main point is the old one, why are landlords involved in asb at all when they have little powers (and little perceived ones) of deterrent to the majority of perpetrators.
Nusiane and criminal behaviours should not be led at all by landlords but by specalist council departments and the police. To expect and even compel landlords to become involved and incur significant costs in the process is just spin over substance and passing the buck.
Recording every incident will only serve to (a) increase the number of cases recorded, (b) increase ngative public perceptions of their safety, and (c) ensure that the 'rght to complain' option is taken up more and more.
In simple terms more cost and resources taken up with admin and not spent on dealing with the problems. This steer and 'right to complain' is simple spin similar to the Tories much derided and unworkable 'right-to-move' and only serve to deflect criticism even further away from the Police who are unbelievably tardy and negligent in dealing with such matters despite year on year increases in council tax payments and other funding.
If the Home Secretary wants police to have better relatioships then steer them to do their job or even simpler.... remind them it is their job in the first place!
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