Action squad to back tough ASB standard

23 November 2009 | By Jamie Obertelli

The Tenant Services Authority is to set up an action squad early next year to work with social landlords in tackling anti-social behaviour.

The team will include experienced front-line staff seconded to the regulator to share their expertise with landlords.

The additional support will be accompanied by a revised standard for tackling anti-social behaviour, which will be binding on social landlords for the first time.

Phil Morgan, executive director of the TSA, said the squad was being set up with the government’s support and would work with landlords and tenants to share good practice. He added more joined up working between local agencies was essential in tackling the issue.

‘Some social housing tenants are causing problems for everyone else – and landlords are not doing enough to deal with anti-social behaviour,’ he said. ‘Our new anti-social behaviour action squad will help landlords to tackle the issues head on.’

The TSA has recently published draft standards social landlords will be required to meet from April next year. One is the neighbourhood and community standard, where dealing with anti-social behaviour is key.

The new standard will build on the existing Respect standard for housing management, which covers preventing and responding to anti-social behaviour within the housing sector.

The TSA will work with Communities and Local Government department on a review of the Respect standard and will consult landlords, tenants and stakeholders on this work.

As part of the renewed drive to tackle anti-social behaviour in social housing, the Chartered Institute of Housing has been commissioned by government to draft new guidance to help landlords. The body also backed the TSA action squad.

Director of policy Richard Capie said: ‘We believe that the idea of specialists forming action squads to drive improvement is positive. It can be consistent with co-regulation and sector-led improvement. We are looking forward to working with the TSA and CLG in taking this forward.’

The government has also announced a £10 million initiative to help communities tackle anti-social behaviour. This will target 130 councils, and support measures such as information campaigns, training for ASB staff and residents, and community-led projects.

Housing minister John Healey called on front-line staff, from community safety teams to housing officers, to make full use of the powers and tools already available, as well as the additional support.

Readers' comments (12)

kass | 23/11/2009 9:22 am
This would be a good iniative but only if tenants will have direct access or contact point with this squad, which would overule the landlord in case they feel the landlord is not acting properly. Without this landlords will get away with setting tenants against each other and not helping the real victims.
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Junior | 23/11/2009 9:32 am
What you going to do with these Bad Housing who do or have done nothing for years our Tenant's cannot get our Housing Association to adhere to the policy and procedures and when take the matter up with Local Authority told his our Housing Association responsible. In the end alot of our Tenant's had to take the drug dealers to court themselves. What's good Tenant's suppose to do nowdays. One tenant is takening the Housing Association to court because it will not sit down and deal with the Tenant's causing the problems i.e. slap a order on them. White and Black people being pushed out the area due to the drug dealing and gangs going on and our Housing Association will do nothing and again any property's come up and is again going to the Asian community push out the Black and White out of the area you make a complaint and you are being Racist. Well where is Social Cohension in our borough like Tower Hamlets. We not treated the same in housing now days and instead of being mixed white and black being out number and where the police knowing all these drug problems and gangs going the police frighten the racist card will be used. I say do not ask Asian Family to move it cars you have a army at your door calling you a racist and I well and tried speaking to the Community Leaders and again nothing all promises and no action. Do you what sort of comments you get well we paying you back for how we was treated when our family came here go and look on Little Big Brian on YourTube
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Melvin Bone | 23/11/2009 9:44 am
'landlords and tenants to share good practice'

It could work if the tenants and the landlords trust each other.

I hope it does for everyones sake.
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Peter | 23/11/2009 11:30 am
I am not sure of the purpose of this exercise and why the TSA is embarking on this proposed method. Anti -social behaviour is by no means a new phenomenon in the housing arena and as the Housing Minister said, 'to make full use of the powers and tools already available'. So the problem is either it is not prioritized as a housing management function or the people responsible for the function is burying their head in the sand! So it is management issue.

It is not rocket science that anti- social behaviour is a serious blight on the people that are affected by it and as such, it must be dealt with the seriousness it demands. Quite often large number of peoples' lives are made a misery by a small minority. All the relevant agencies are already in place to deal with this problem and all you need to do, is to work with them.

Just because the TSA has gone around the country in their pink bus should not jump on the bandwagon and assume that it is going solve the problem of anti- social behaviour with its limited information and knowledge!
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Harry Lime | 23/11/2009 12:11 pm
"it's like deja vu all over again" I wonder how much different this task force will be to the SLCNG http://www.slcng.org.uk/who_are_slcng.php I remember the inception of this group, some decent guidance and soundbites, but ASB cases always fall down on the frontline due to resources. No matter what advice you get from someone else, if the case is a "he said, she said" type case with allegation and counter allegation then the time and money to resolve these cases are a massive drain. Yes, the resources should be found, but it would be at the expense of something else. Ultimately successful resolutions and "slapping of orders" in ASB cases require police intervention and evidence gathering. Senior managers aren't likely to take on a complicated ASB case when the defendent is likely to be on legal aid and where it could escalate to getting QC's involved and RSL's left with 5 figure bills unless they're absolutely sure there will be a successful outcome. A "50/50"chance of a successful outcome for a £15,000 outlay? Harsh, but from my experience, unfortunately true.
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Ray Barrett | 23/11/2009 12:50 pm
Until you have actually had your life destroyed by ASB, you can not fully appreciate what all the fuss is about.

I sincerely hope that this makes a difference.
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Joe Halewood | 23/11/2009 12:52 pm
A £10m initiative? Why not simply tell the home office this is a police task for which everyone has already paid through their coucil tax?

Or why not get special policemen (PCSOs / special constables) to do this instead?

They would have the authority of the uniform, the direct route into the full force of the police when matters become criminal and also serve as a far greater deterrent to perpetrators than housing officers.

ASB should not be a landlord responsibility ans while it is palmed off on then tenants suffer because of that.
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kass | 23/11/2009 12:57 pm
Harry Lime | Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:11 GMT
exactly. To show they are doing something social landlords have been going shopping around for the easiest and cheapest ASBs and inflicted them on the tenants less likely than others could either put up or afford to contest Asbs...
Like a beast prowling for weaker animals to kill.
this means the greatest majority of serious offenders who have resources to defend themselves in court have not been touched. Most Asbs cases I have come across where single people, usually isolated and often with some mental illness who should not have been housed where they were in the first place, made scapegoats by landlords for their own allocations and housing mistakes.
The only solution here is for social landlords to join in chorus and demand that Asb is primarily a police matter and refuse any funding given to them to deal with crime and say we are here to offer only housing solutions to any antisocial behaviour (i.e. if we can help solve a case through transfer if a transfer is a victim's preference and this is all we are going to do). Any legal and criminal asb initiative must be exclusive to the police.
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worried well | 23/11/2009 4:45 pm
The recent calls for the abolition of the TSA are starting to make real sense.

Remember the action squads headed by Louise Casey?
Remember the ASB standards and the push that every HA had a policy and procedure?
Remember how you had to all have the same measures that you reported to the centre?
Remember how the Audit Commission came knocking and you got stars if you had a policy and could show how many cases you handled and how many ASBO and other things you were dishing out?
Remember how we had an initiative a week?
Remember how recently we had the SLCNG pushing a standard?

Has any of this improved the situation? If it has it is because of the focus and not because of the above list that has wasted hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers and residents money.

It was all meaningless activity. Is the TSA about to compound the problem?

Looks that way ... bang goes another few million quid
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Joe Halewood | 23/11/2009 5:48 pm
I just happened to hear on the radio that evryone of us can access the "Police Pledge" - that they will respond within 24 hours to members of the public.

So, can i urge all tenants and owner-occupiers to contact the police with all incidents of asb - after all you have paid for this in your council tax.

What the pledge promises
Neighbourhood policing teams can give you information including local crime statistics and crime maps.

Neighbourhood Policing Opens new window Through the national policing pledge, every police force promises to listen to you and your neighbours, and to act on any problems you raise with them.

The pledge promises that:

- police will treat you with dignity and respect at all times
- emergency 999 calls will be answered within ten seconds, and that help will be sent immediately
- if you call 999, you’ll be told when help will get there, and it will be there on time
police will handle non-emergency calls quickly
- if you need to make an appointment to discuss local crime problems, you can
- neighbourhood policing teams will spend at least 80 per cent of their time on the beat in your neighbourhood
- your neighbourhood policing team will keep you informed about what they are doing about local issues and priorities

The pledge also says that if you're unhappy with the service you've received and you report that to the police, police will get in touch within 24 hours and discuss the situation with you. They will give you the opportunity to talk about it with someone from your local police, in person.

You can read the full national policing pledge by following the link below

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/documents/digitalasset/dg_172297.pdf
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