WIREDGOV

Help for landlords to tackle anti-social behaviour

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT News Release (045) issued by The Government News Network on 27 February 2008

Social landlords are to be given the opportunity to play a greater role in helping clampdown on crime and anti-social behaviour.

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears will today publish guidance for housing associations on improving engagement with Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs), to assist landlords in tackling problems that can blight housing estates, including drinking in public, youth gangs, truancy and drug taking.

Housing associations will be encouraged to share intelligence of anti-social behaviour and criminal behaviour with other members of the CDRP and by working together share resources and expertise to really crack down on anti-social behaviour.

Hazel Blears said:

"Social landlords shouldn't just be concerned with bricks and mortar, they must also be involved in building better, safer communities.

"Our guidance will support social landlords to engage with other key agencies to help tackle anti-social behaviour wherever and whenever it occurs. It will help to deliver quicker, more effective actions, and in turn, increase tenants' confidence in coming forward to report problems."

Individual housing associations will decide locally how to engage with partnerships and what activities they may wish to take on. Examples of work already being undertaken by housing associations were engagement with partnerships already occurs include:

* Pill patrols - No parent wants to send their children out to play in areas where drug use is rife. On the Church Manor estate in Lambeth residents have been made to feel safer after social landlords teamed up with local police to patrol the estate and improve monitoring via CCTV. This joint effort has resulted in the successful closure of a crack house.

* Gang clampdowns - in East Finchley, social landlords have started to work with the local safer neighbourhood sergeant to look at how to disperse groups of youths congregating in public spaces. The housing association and local council are working together to provide youth clubs and activities for local kids and looking at how they can share resources to bring in neighbourhood wardens.

* Crime-busting consortia - Moving a gang, graffiti artist or serial fly tipper on from one estate may well result in them simply turning up at another. If we want to make social housing a no go area for anti social behaviour and anti-social people, social landlords need to work together to get results. In Coventry, they have developed a Consortium of Social Landlords, who work together to form partnerships spanning estates across local areas to allow landlords to explore more options for tackling anti-social behaviour.

* Estate surgeries - on the World's End Estate in Kensington and Chelsea, representatives from the council, and police regularly attend 'estate surgeries' with local residents alongside housing association staff. The more visible presence of police and this more hands on approach where people get to know local police officers and police get to know residents on estates have resulted effective action against drug dealing.

* Social landlords groups - Kent and Medway Social Landlords Anti-social Behaviour Group have pioneered a new approach that sees housing associations and the police work jointly on local initiatives. The group meets to discuss best practice, share information and discuss current problems. This leads to more targeted interventions and allows landlords to report back to residents on the actions being taken in their area.

* Information sharing - housing associations are able to share intelligence on anti-social and criminal behaviour. Housing associations in Wandsworth regularly provide the council and police with updates about activity in their area, up to date information about staff who are leading on issues and changes to properties and residents in the borough.

Notes to Editors:

1. Statutory partnerships, known as Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) or Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) in Wales, give responsible authorities a duty to work with other local agencies and organisations to develop and implement strategies to tackle crime and disorder, including anti-social and other behaviour adversely affecting the local environment as well as the misuse of drugs in their area. (s6, Crime and Disorder Act 1998 as amended by s97 & s98 Police Reform Act 2002 and s1, Clean Neighbourhoods & Environment Act 2005).

2. This guidance is aimed at CDRPs and Registered Social Landlords in England. It focuses on the change in status of RSLs within the membership structure of CDRPs in England, which took place on 31 July 2007 and was designed to help create better engagement and co-operation between RSLs and partnerships. The guidance is at http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/rslcrrpguidance

3. These changes occurred at the same time as the Home Office's wider CDRP Reform Programme.

4. Further details on aspects of the reform programme, including new 'Hallmarks of Effective Practice' for partnerships, can be found within the Home Office publication 'Delivering Safer Communities: A guide to effective partnership working'. Copies of this publication can be obtained from the partnership mini-site on the Crime Reduction website (http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/regions/regions00.htm).

5. The guidance document, Registered Social Landlords and Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships: Improving Engagement, published today, sets out the practicalities to the change in status for housing associations (from 'invitees to participate' to 'co-operating bodies'.

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