Erdington MP Siôn Simon this week welcomed the news that resident groups on council estates in England are to be given new powers to tackle anti-social behaviour and take day-to-day control of council services.
In addition, the Government announced a £485 million investment plan to update run-down council housing as part of a programme to raise the standard of all social housing.
New regulations laid before Parliament today will for the first time give Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs) powers to apply for Anti-Social Behaviour Orders. Powers of this kind are at the heart of the Governments Respect programme which is about giving people power and a real sense of ownership over their services and public spaces.
Tenant Management Organisations and Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) already have responsibility for the day-to-day running of the homes in their area such as rent collection, house allocations and lettings. The new, additional powers, will give local residents a greater say in how their estates are run and support them in ensuring that disruptive, anti-social behaviour is dealt with swiftly and effectively. ASBOs – a court order prohibiting a person from specific anti-social acts or from certain areas – could be used by to clamp down on anything from noisy neighbours to nuisance, harassment and race hate crime, with a maximum of five years in prison if breached.
All Tenant Management Organisations will have to undergo a rigorous procedure before taking on ASB responsibilities. There will be clear safeguards to ensure the new powers are used responsibly, but, where a TMO has been assessed as competent, the Government sees no reason why it should not be delegated ASBO functions.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said:
“No-one knows better how to transform a community than the people that live there. Nothing undermines a sense of community more than the kind of disruptive and aggressive actions that we associate with anti-social behaviour. Local people are increasingly playing a bigger role in the decisions that affect them and the areas in which they live. The new extended powers will ensure that those people who are most affected by anti-social behaviour can take the swift action that is needed to stamp it out.”
Mr. Simon said:
“These new regulations laid will for the first time give Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs) powers to apply for Anti-Social Behaviour Orders.
Powers of this kind are at the heart of the Governments Respect Action plan. I believe we should give people power and a real sense of ownership over their services and public spaces. So this is just the kind of thing I want to see happen in Erdington.
I was pleased that the Government reassured MPs that there will be safeguards to ensure the new powers are used responsibly – that is sensible. So if a TMO in Erdington is competent, they will get the powers to take on anti-social behaviour.”
The new ASBO powers are a key element of the Government’s wider commitment to make social housing more responsive to the needs of social tenants. It is a commitment underpinned by the huge investment that has been put into council housing over the last ten years.
Today £485 million is being allocated for the modernisation of around 55,000 homes during the next year. The funding – which brings the total amount allocated to councils with ALMOs for improving council homes since 2002 to £3.7bn – will enable 17 local authorities (19 ALMOs) across the country to continue their work in ensuring their properties meet the Decent Homes Standard.
The Decent Homes programme is a response to years of under funding in much of the social housing stock in England. By 2010 around £40 billion will have been spent on improving dilapidated, run down council housing making it decent – warm, weatherproof and fitted with modern facilities.
Since 1997, the number of non-decent social homes have been reduced by more than a million and 500,000 new kitchens, 350,000 new bathrooms and 630,000 new boilers have been installed in council homes. The additional funding announced today will ensure even more people benefit from this programme and drive forward the Government’s aim of making all social homes decent.
Ruth Kelly said:
“Poor housing can make areas unpopular to live in and create a bad reputation. The ongoing investment we are putting into decent homes together with the growing role for tenants in shaping their own environments is transforming not just individual homes but entire communities. The new powers to tackle anti-social behaviour is another step towards making this transformation a reality across the country and making sure that the improvements we want to see are happening both inside and outside the home.”
The Government is determined to make it easier for more and more tenants to get involved in the running of their estates. Over 200 Tenant Management Organisations already exist but at the moment it can take up to three years to get these organisations up and running – putting many people off.
