Section: Antisocial Behaviour & Nuisance

Case Law Update

The police believed the home of the claimant, who was a council tenant, was being used for dealing Class A drugs. They served her with a Closure Notice in November 2005, under section 1 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003.

The police applied to the Magistrates the following day for a Closure Order. The hearing was adjourned for 14 days. The Justices refused a further adjournment and started to try the application.

In a Judicial Review of that decision, the Divisional Court gives guidance on the requirements for disclosure by the police of relevant evidence and the proper approach to the use of hearsay evidence at such a trial.

R(Cleary) v Highbury Corner Magistrates Court [2006] EWHC 1869 (Admin), 26 July, Divisional Court

Respect Standard for Housing Management

The Respect Standard was launched, outlining the core components essential to delivering an effective response to anti-social behaviour and building stronger communities, such as accountability, leadership, greater resident empowerment, and supporting community efforts at tackling anti-social behaviour.

Housing Minister, Baroness Andrews, said the new Standard draws on best practice already generated by social landlords and their partners during the last few years:

"A culture of respect is central to many of the things we seek to achieve in creating better places where people can thrive. The Standard creates a clear opportunity for landlords, tenants and the community to work together to ensure this can be attained. Those landlords who have already acted as trailblazers have set a high standard for others to aim for and in order to ensure that every community is free from antisocial behaviour and all its ill-effects, all landlords can play a key role."

The Government's Co-ordinator for Respect, Louise Casey, stressed the importance of landlords signing up to the new Standard:

"Strong housing management where landlords take swift action to tackle anti-social behaviour can make a real difference to tenants and the wider community. Tenants should expect their landlords to protect them from unacceptable behaviour. Signing up to this new standard demonstrates a commitment to this. It sends a clear signal that they will work to uphold certain standards of behaviour, to the benefit of all."

Publication of the Respect Standard for housing management follows extensive public consultation including a written consultation paper and a programme of regional consultation events. Two documents have been published on the Department for Communities and Local Government Web-site - a Guide for Landlords and a Guide for the Public.

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, with increased resident involvement including in 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 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.

Section: Antisocial Behaviour & Nuisance

Case Law Update

Respect Standard for Housing Management

Housing Monthly Diary

Issue: September 2006 Reporting on July-August 2006

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