Lead by example

Just a few weeks ago, an article in Inside Housing highlighted the problem of partners, which are supposedly working closely to eradicate anti-social behaviour, shifting blame to one another when faced with particularly difficult cases.

The tragic deaths of Fiona Pilkington and her 18-year-old daughter Francecca Hardwick in 2007 following sustained abuse from local youths, showed not only the need for better information sharing between partners, but the need for agencies to get beyond an ‘us and them’ mentality.

Unified approach

In Birmingham, I’m pleased to say that the police do not share the view that dealing with low level anti-social behaviour is a matter just for the local authority, as a senior Leicestershire police officer said at the Pilkington inquest.

We work together to tackle anti-social behaviour in our communities and last year we took more than 200 legal actions against perpetrators of anti-social behaviour. We have locally-based, specialist anti-social behaviour officers who have good relationships with residents in the neighbourhoods they serve.

My view is that that everyone - social housing landlords, local authorities, the police and probation service, families, schools and communities - needs to work together to tackle anti-social behaviour. It is all but impossible to address this issue in isolation.

Clearly, tenants have a significant role to play. They need to be involved, not only in reporting aggressive, intimidating or destructive behaviour from others but also in supporting agencies in their investigations.

Of course, I recognise that tenants need to trust us and our partners to safeguard their protection. We offer victim and witness support services to all our tenants and we acknowledge that they should be the focus of every agency’s work.

However, I believe that for too long, too much emphasis has been placed on tenants’ rights at the expense of their responsibilities. With this in mind, and in response to our tenants’ wishes, we recently revised our conditions of tenancy.

Zero tolerance

The new contract emphasises the kind of behaviour we will not tolerate and the fact that we won’t hesitate to take action to eliminate it.

The conditions explain that tenants who partake in anti-social behaviour may lose their homes, but we also work hard to resolve issues through peer mediation and tenancy support for vulnerable tenants. I also think it’s important for residents to take responsibility for the anti-social behaviour of those who live with them, as well as visitors to their home. Parents need to be more accountable for their children. It is not acceptable for children’s bad behaviour to be left to the authorities to tackle, whether in school or by their landlords.

The contract gives guidance on how demoted tenancies can be used as a response to serious anti-social behaviour so that if tenants do not respect their neighbours’ rights, they are actually at risk of losing their security of tenure.

I recognise that our efforts are only as good as the decisions of the courts, but I am also all too aware that our investigations into anti-social behaviour can often be hindered when tenants, who are not directly affected by anti-social behaviour, refuse to support us and other agencies in our inquiries. The new contract makes clear that we expect our tenants to assist with our investigations. Again, victim and witness support services will be available to those who require them.

I hope that these new conditions give residents and the larger community peace of mind and the reassurance that if they do find themselves facing anti-social behaviour, we will put their rights and their needs above anything else.

Late last year Birmingham Council won a landmark case against a perpetrator of severe anti-social behaviour that centred on homophobic bullying against one of our tenants. The council was given a possession order on the perpetrator’s home and an 18-month anti-social behaviour injunction was handed down.

That case sticks in my mind because the victim said afterwards that he was very grateful for the efforts of all agencies and thankful for the support he received throughout the investigations. The court’s ruling brought an end to a reign of homophobic abuse against the victim and the intimidating behaviour other residents had been subject to for six months, which included harassment, intimidation and damage to their homes and vehicles.

Mechanisms are needed to help victims feel confident that their complaints will be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated. This case highlighted how positive outcomes can be achieved by putting the victim first and agencies working closely together to support the victim.

However, prime minister Gordon Brown’s assertion that he wants future legislation to enable victims, whom agencies have failed, to secure injunctions against perpetrators of anti-social behaviour, sounds like a desperate election pledge too far.

Prevention

Of course, in an ideal world I would prefer that cases of anti-social behaviour are resolved before they even get to court.

We all know prevention is better than cure. There are cases where anti-social behaviour is a symptom of underlying problems and that is another scenario where agencies must work together to identify problems and tackle them early on.

In the coming weeks, the Home Office is expected to offer guidance on how we can support victims and witnesses further and give them a ‘guarantee’ of protection. It is something that all agencies should put into practice because it’s not a battle any of us can afford to lose.

John Lines is cabinet member for housing at Birmingham Council