Maria Miller welcomes the Prime Minister’s new Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan for a cleaner, safer Basingstoke – giving the Council and police better ability to crack down on intimidating and unpleasant behaviour in our community.
Maria said, ‘anti-social behaviour is unacceptable in our community. Not only does it frequently lead on to more serious crime, it also makes other people feel unsafe in their homes and erodes a sense of community. This is felt particularly acutely by women and girls.
‘I welcome the Action Plan to reduce anti-social behaviour – it is excellent to see greater onus placed on getting perpetrators of anti-social behaviour out of social housing where they not only cause nuisance, but fear and distress to those with little other choice but to live next to them. My office has been contacted by upstanding tenants with many cases of terrible anti-social behaviour perpetrated by neighbours who are simply not evicted.’
In particular, Maria welcomes the Government’s plans on swifter evictions for anti-social tenants, increased police visibility, cracking down on ‘cuckooing’, and consideration of women’s safety in the planning framework.
Swifter Eviction of Anti-Social Tenants
Social landlords already have powers to tackle anti-social behaviour, through their allocation of social housing and through existing powers of eviction – however, sometimes action is not taken quickly enough, or at all.
Maria welcomes that the Government will update statutory social housing allocations guidance to be clear that evidence of committing anti-social behaviour can and should be used to de-prioritise anti-social behaviour perpetrators, who should be at the back of the queue for social housing.
The Government will set the clear expectation that social landlords exercise their powers of eviction in a timely fashion, and speed up the process of removing anti-social behaviour perpetrators from their communities by exploring a “three strikes and you’re out” eviction expectation for all social landlords. After three strikes, perpetrators of anti-social behaviour should face eviction and be deprioritised for further social housing.
Under the plan Councils will have more powers to move in quickly when houses are left vacant – cutting the timeframe from when they can act from two years of a building being empty to six months.
Cuckooing
Cuckooing is the horrendous practice of criminals infiltrating someone’s home and operating their criminal activity from this home. The victim in these circumstances is very often a vulnerable person with minimal recourse to prevent what is happening.
The Government will consult on making cuckooing a specific criminal offence, which will work to protect the vulnerable victims and give police the recourse needed to address offenders.
Women’s Safety
The plan will make sure high streets are designed with safety and deterring anti-social behaviour in mind is key – a consultation will explore whether the National Planning Policy Framework should consider measures such as CCTV and extra lighting.
This follows from the successes of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council in securing better street lighting and CCTV in Basingstoke as part of the Safer Streets Fund to better protect women and girls.
Police
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary are already well on their way to meeting officer recruitment targets, with approximately 600 more officers now on the streets. Around 50 of these officers will be stationed in Basingstoke.
Increased police presence is vital to reducing anti-social behaviour as potential offenders know they will likely be caught. Anti-social behaviour is completely unacceptable. For many years, Maria has been working closely with the police, key partners, shopkeepers, and community groups to stamp address this issue.
Maria has long argued that one of the key aspects of making our streets and communities safer is to increase both the number and visibility of police officers.
