COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENT News Release (168) issued by The Government News Network
on 11 September 2007
Social housing
landlords today received new guidance to help them measure their
success in tackling anti-social behaviour. A toolkit, developed
by HouseMark and the Social Landlords' Crime and Nuisance
Group (SLCNG) for Communities and Local Government, offers
practical help and advice on collecting, interpreting and using information.
The toolkit explains in easy to understand terms, the information
that landlords should collect on anti-social behaviour in order to
target their staff time and resources effectively.
It will also assist landlords in meeting the requirements of the
Respect Standard for Housing Management and encourage even more
landlords to sign up to the standard itself.
The guidance has been developed in close consultation with
landlords and key national organisations. A panel of 28
practitioners, reflecting the range of different social landlords,
has guided the development of the toolkit to ensure that it
reflects the needs of the sector.
Junior Housing Minister Iain Wright MP said:
"Tackling anti-social behaviour and helping to create a
culture of Respect within our communities is a key part of a
social landlord's responsibilities. This toolkit will help
them measure and improve how well they perform this important job."
Steve Osborne, executive consultant at HouseMark and manager on
the project said;
"The Toolkit is a non-regulatory tool that sits well with
the Cave reports recommendations for greater emphasis for housing
provider self-assessment".
Peter Jackson, managing director at SLCNG said;
"The toolkit has been produced in collaboration with members
of HouseMark and SLCNG and will be even more relevant having been
influenced by the views of front line staff"
Over 350 social landlords have now signed-up to the Respect
Standard in the 12 months since it was launched. Six out of ten
social housing tenants, over 5 million residents, live in homes
covered by the benchmark.
The Respect Standard for Housing Management: A Performance
Improvement Toolkit for Landlords is available on the Communities
and Local Government website (http://www.communities.gov.uk).
HouseMark and the SLCNG are running ten workshops focusing on the
outcomes of action to tackle ASB from October to December 2007 -
see http://www.housemark.co.uk
for more information.
Notes to Editors
1. The Respect Standard was launched on 17 August 2006.
2. The Standard is built around six core commitments:
Accountability, leadership, and commitment
Landlords need to make a visible commitment to the community so
that everyone is clear they take issues of anti-social behaviour
and Respect seriously and will deliver what they say they will.
Empowering and reassuring residents
Landlords and the community need to work as one through involving
residents and giving them input into decision making. Engagement
and effective communications act to reassure and empower communities.
Prevention and early intervention
Landlords can play a key role in preventing anti-social behaviour
from occurring. Where it does occur if problems are addressed
quickly this often gets the best results.
Tailored services for residents and provision of support for
victims and witnesses Success rests on people being prepared to
report and then give support to agencies in taking action. Every
case and every person deserves a robust, tailored and sensitive response.
Protecting Communities through swift enforcement
Government has provided landlords with the tools they need to
tackle a whole range of anti-social behaviour. Landlords need to
understand how tools work and be prepared to use them quickly to
protect communities.
Support to tackle the causes of anti-social behaviour
Provision of support can put an end to unacceptable behaviour by
tackling underlying causes. This leads to sustainable outcomes and
gets people's lives back on track.
Public Enquiries: 020 7944 4400;
News Releases: http://www.communities.gov.uk