Nasty neighbours given £1.25m rehab package to avoid eviction

17 Feb 05
Nightmare neighbours who hold communities to ransom with threatening and intimidating behaviour are to be offered a last chance to change their ways before being evicted from their homes.

18 February 2005

Nightmare neighbours who hold communities to ransom with threatening and intimidating behaviour are to be offered a last chance to change their ways before being evicted from their homes.

A £1.25m rehabilitation package, to be rolled out across 50 troubled areas in England and Wales, will offer 1,000 anti-social families intensive support, including lessons in parenting and money management.

An expert review of 67 of the most difficult nuisance families targeted by councils and social landlords found that progress had been made in two-thirds of cases.

In addition, 30% of families said they thought increased support had helped, while 39% thought their behaviour had improved as a result of a warning, anti-social behaviour order or threat of eviction.

But Home Office minister Hazel Blears said the government was determined to clamp down further on anti-social behaviour. 'That is why we are investing £1.25m to ensure that those parents who persist in letting their kids run wild or behave like yobs themselves will face intensive rehabilitation in 50 more areas across the country, backed by the threat of enforcement,' she said.

The Home Office's February 14 announcement builds on some of the work pioneered by the children's charity NCH, which aims to break the cycle of eviction faced by anti-social families by offering them constructive help.

NCH policy adviser George McNamara said the extension of the policy should lead to real changes. 'Anti-social behaviour is a very complex problem and if we want to end the distress that it creates, addressing its root causes is vital,' he said. 'From our experience working with challenging families, we know that intensive and tailored support for those with a history of anti-social behaviour enables them to re-connect with mainstream society.'

Richard Kemp, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat group at the Local Government Association, also welcomed the move, saying the change in tone was an improvement on the government's previous 'simplistic rhetoric'.

'Only now, when [punitive] measures are failing to work is the government being forced to admit that it has got it wrong,' he said.

'Anti-social behaviour orders, injunctions and evictions are a vital part of the armoury that councils have in dealing with these problems yet they are only a small part of the answer.'

PFfeb2005

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