Reducing anti-social behaviour (ASB) is crucial to making neighbourhoods better places to live. Anti-social behaviour can take many forms - boisterous behaviour on public transport, rowdy drunks on the street, litter and graffiti, abandoned cars, noisy neighbours - and can blight the lives of individuals and whole communities in London.
The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 created new powers and incentives to assist local authorities in dealing with the range of anti-social behaviours. A national campaign against anti-social behaviour, Together, was launched as an accompaniment to the legislation. Since the Government launched this in October 2003, there has been a huge response from practitioners and local communities determined to tackle, not tolerate, anti-social behaviour. Powers and tools (increased under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act, 2005) have been used widely and wisely, demonstrating that barriers and obstacles have been overcome and are no longer an excuse for inaction.
The Government's Respect Action Plan, published in January 2006 built on this successful drive to tackle anti-social behaviour and took work to a new level, seeking to address the deeper underlying causes of unacceptable behaviour. The Action Plan contains a number of commitments including the introduction of a mandatory Respect and anti-social behaviour outcome in Local Area Agreements.
Local Area Agreements (LAAs)
A LAA is a three year agreement that sets out the priorities for a local area agreed between central government and a local area. Local government receives pooled funding, reduced reporting requirements and additional flexibilities to help them deliver the agreed priorities. Areas may also negotiate reward grants in return for additional stretch in performance against top priorities for improvement locally. Follow the Local Area Agreement link at the bottom of the page for more information.
ASB is a key priority for central government. It is also a key priority for local communities who regularly identify ASB issues as the most important in their area. It is important that local partners put in place robust plans to tackle anti-social behaviour and build a culture of respect. The cross-cutting and partnership nature of LAAs and the pooling of a number of relevant funding streams mean that they are potentially very well places to facilitate delivery of the ASB agenda.
In order to achieve improvements in tackling anti-social behaviour, London boroughs should plan a combination of interventions relevant to their area that might include:
- Effective enforcement (use of powers and tools - Anti-Social Behaviour Orders etc)
- Greater accountability on community safety in neighbourhoods
- the Respect Housing Management Standard (see link at the bottom of this page for more information)
- Physical regeneration linked to tackling poor behaviour
- Provision of constructive activities for young people
- Tackling truancy and bad behaviour in school
- Effective support for families
- An effective response for challenging families
- Action on improving the local physical environment
During the three-year period of a LAA, delivery for each London borough is reviewed every six months by Government Office for London. Where performance is poor, we have a 'ladder on intervention' which can ultimately lead to a cessation of funding stream payments in extreme cases.
The most relevant targets for tackling anti-social behaviour (out of a suite of 198) that local authorities can prioritise in 2008-11 include:
- Perceptions of anti-social behaviour
- Dealing with local concerns about anti-social behaviour and crime by the local council and police
- Understanding of local concerns about anti-social behaviour and crime by the local council and police
- Arson incidents
- Perceptions of drunk or rowdy behaviour as a problem
- Perceptions of drug use or drug dealing as a problem
- Young people’s participation in positive activities
- Improved street and environmental cleanliness
Anti-Social Behaviour Board for London
In the summer of 2006, London's Community Safety Partnership (LCSP) proposed tackling anti-social behaviour to be a priority for the capital. As a result, an ASB Board has been set up involving high level representation from the capital's key agencies including Government Office for London. It will meet regularly and take a strategic approach to the most important issues surrounding anti-social behaviour in London - collating better data and information on anti-social behaviour and reducing levels of anti-social behaviour suffered by young people to name but two.
For more details of the Board’s activities please click here.
