Coalition commitments on anti-social behaviour

Not everyone has access to stuff I get, So I'm sharing latest comment by the Coalition on Anti-Social Behaviour, Via a Newsletter I receive.
Good news is that the Very Difficult regaining of possession that then blights areas with Hard To Remove ASB creators is changing. Lots of Estates and areas will benefit. 
This along with Localisation of Respect Actions, and greater Housing Association , Arms Length Management organisation, Registered Social Landlord liaison and control over Local Partnerships and Action Plans can only benefit decent people within social housing. 
It delivers accountability there and then, and who knows more about it than Housing Specialists who take the lead on this. They KNOW Housing. MP's? How many have direct experience and influence over Social Housing? Anyway, before I continue, here's the article that may interest some of you.




The housing and crime prevention ministers have written to social landlords to emphasise the government’s commitment to make it easier for them to prevent and tackle anti-social behaviour.

The ministers recognised the importance of prevention and early intervention but announced their plans for changes aimed at helping reduce the time it takes to evict anti-social tenants in those cases where other approaches have failed.

1. A mandatory, rather than a discretionary, ground for possession will be introduced for anti-social behaviour where serious housing related anti-social behaviour has already been proven by a court.
   
   Ministers believe that this could significantly reduce the time from possession claim to a decision by the court since the court will usually need only to establish that an objectively established ground for possession has been made out, and so hearings should on average be much shorter and court time more readily available.
   
   This proposals will be included in the forthcoming review of anti-social behaviour tools and powers.
2. The DCLG and Home Office are also to work with the Ministry of Justice to see if they can reduce the time it takes for serious anti-social behaviour possession cases to reach the county court.
3. The government is to continue funding of the ASB ACTION TEAM, hosted by the CIH, for a further year, with a remit to work with existing and emerging tenant panels to strengthen their capacity to work with and challenge landlords on anti-social behaviour issues.

The ministers state in their letter that government's tenure reform proposals will create new incentives for tenants to behave in a neighbourly way and make it easier for landlords to end tenancies where they do not. However, they talk of the the proposed new flexible tenancies working alongside rather than instead of introductory and starter tenancies, and seek to encourage the third of social landlords who are not currently using introductory or starter tenancies to review their decision.

The government will make clear, through the direction to the regulator on the content of a revised tenancy standard, that housing associations have the same freedom as local authorities to extend probationary tenancies from one year to eighteen months.

Read the DCLG press release here.




I hope that some of you have found this a useful piece.