Forum Brief: Anti-social behaviour

The home secretary has stepped up the government's attempts to clamp down on anti-social behaviour.

David Blunkett launched a new action plan to help communities blighted by problems such as graffiti.

Oliver Letwin, shadow home secretary, said: "While we welcome the aims behind the announcement, there are serious questions about whether it is just another headline-grabbing initiative, or whether it will it bring lasting improvements.

"The street crime initiative reduced street crime for a while, but burglary rates promptly went up.

"To tackle anti-social behaviour effectively, we need real neighbourhood policing. That is why the Conservative Party is committed to recruiting 40,000 extra police officers and to making police forces democratically accountable to local people."

Mark Oaten, home affairs spokesman, said: "Even after seven years of Labour we still need concerted action on graffiti, abandoned cars, and threatening behaviour. People deserve to feel save in their own communities.

"But there are no one size fits all solutions. Whilst we can insist an abandoned car is removed we can't evict a problem family without re-housing them somewhere else.

"This cannot just be about catching and excluding the culprits. The government must think big, and find better ways to bring offenders back into the law-abiding community.

"Local problems need local solutions. If the government is going to intervene locally it must help local communities to help themselves, and not seek to govern by national targets."

Forum Response: Shelter

Adam Sampson, director of Shelter, said: "Every day we see people's lives destroyed by noise, threatening behaviour, violence and petty crime. They deserve solutions that work and not another set of initiatives that make good politics but bad policy.

"Too often proposals that simply punish perpetrators - such as cutting housing benefit or making it easier to evict them - see innocent people punished or problems simply pushed on to a new set of neighbours.

"We see the damage that this kind of attitude is already inflicting. One of our clients, a woman, was evicted because of anti social behaviour. That behaviour turned out to be her partner threatening, beating and, in one instance, raping her in front of neighbours. Nothing is actually done to tackle that behaviour, no questions are asked and so no solutions offered.

"We know from our work with anti social tenants that the best approach is a balanced one - where prevention and rehabilitation of the alleged perpetrators is as important as enforcement. We urge the government to focus as much on solutions that prevent anti social behaviour as they do on punishing those that commit it."

Forum Response: Local Government Association

Councillor Richard Grant, chair of the LGA's community safety panel, said: "Many of the measures in the action plan are welcome additions to the tools available to councils and the police in our shared drive against anti-social behaviour.

"But there are no quick fixes. Tough action against perpetrators may make good short term headlines, but unless that is accompanied with long-term action, the victims will be the long-term losers.

"Enforcement is just the filling in the sandwich - the bread and butter mustn't be forgotten, tackling the conditions that lead to anti-social behaviour and funding the measures to ensure that perpetrators are rehabilitated and don't re-offend.

"Central government must ensure that councils are free to form local partnerships to enable local action against anti-social behaviour suit local circumstances. What is right for one area might not be right for another.

"The LGA and our member councils have been working with the government's Anti-Social Behaviour Unit to continue to develop initiatives in this area, particularly developing and monitoring the effectiveness of local pilots.

"But it is vital that all these approaches are sustainable in the long run. The resources must be available to allow successful projects to be rolled out to all councils.

"There is also room for more joined up thinking across government on this issue - the Anti-Social Behaviour Unit could fulfil a useful role in ensuring Whitehall departments have a consistent approach."

Forum Response: British Retail Consortium

Russell Hamblin-Boone, head of public affairs at the British Retail Consortium, told ePolitix.com:Crime against retailers is a symptom of anti-social behaviour.

"Shop staff, customers and the community are its victims. Stealing from shops can act as the gateway for many young offenders into more serious crime, which is why retailers have spent £3 billion over the last three yearsfighting crime in the high street.

"Two thirds of losses from crime go to support drug abuse and the majority of thefts, especially those involving violence, are by drug addicts."Local retailers are already working with police and local authorities through crime reduction partnerships to compile the evidence that can be used to invoke ASBO's to exclude individual from town centres.

"In the long-term addicts and young offenders need help from the government to rehabilitate back into the community. Only in this way can we tackle the yob culture with a permanent solution."

Forum Response: National Youth Agency

A spokesman for the NYA told ePolitix.com: "We are all too aware of the impact that problematic behaviour can have on communities and that tackling this is vital. But simply being tough on children and young people is not the answer.

"However, we believe that the proposals alienate and scapegoat children and young people and reinforce negative stereotypes".

"Legislation should not be made on the basis of prejudice and fear, or used as a way to divide communities, justify intolerance and promote discrimination."