The Government’s Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan
Kuljit Bhogal KC gives an overview of the Government’s Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan
“The government is clear – acts of anti-social behaviour are unacceptable. They are the ultimate form of disrespect. They disrupt and damage our quality of life. They corrode communities, make victims feel powerless, and can leave places degraded and neglected.”
The Government’s Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan was published on 26th March 2023.
There are several proposals which are designed to better support tenants and landlords including:
- extending the power of arrest to all breaches of civil injunction
- ensuring that all private tenancy agreements include clauses specifically banning anti-social behaviour – making it easier for landlords to use the breach of tenancy ground to evict anti-social tenants
- making the notice period 2 weeks for all anti-social behaviour eviction grounds
- expanding the discretionary eviction ground, to make anti-social behaviour easier to prove in court: clarifying that any behaviour ‘capable’ of causing ‘nuisance or annoyance’ can lead to eviction
- speeding up the process of evicting an anti-social tenant by working with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to explore how to prioritise anti-social behaviour cases in Possession Lists in the courts
- introducing legislation which would set out the principles that judges must consider when making their decision, such as giving weight to the impact on landlords, neighbours, and housemates and whether the tenant has failed to engage with other interventions to manage their behaviour
- preventing short-term lets importing anti-social behaviour into communities, such as noise problems or drunken and disorderly behaviour. A new registration scheme is to be set up
- updating the statutory allocations guidance to allow perpetrators of ASB to be de-prioritised
- speeding up the eviction of perpetrators of anti-social behaviour by exploring a “three strikes and you’re out” eviction “expectation”.
- to extend the closure power to housing providers so that they no longer need to go through the council or the police to close problematic premises.
In addition, proposed changes that are not restricted to housing include lowering the age limit of community protection notices to include younger perpetrators and extending the ability to make Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) to the police.
One proposed change has left me somewhat puzzled. Paragraph (d) above sets out the Government’s desire to “expand” the discretionary eviction ground, to make anti-social behaviour easier to prove in court: clarifying that any behaviour ‘capable’ of causing ‘nuisance or annoyance’ can lead to eviction. The proposed change to ground 14 of Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988 can be seen at Part 1, clause 3 and Schedule 1 of the Renters Reform Bill.
However, ground 2 of Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1985 and ground 14 of Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988 already provide for conduct causing “or likely to cause” a nuisance or annoyance. It’s not clear to me what kind of conduct is “capable” of causing nuisance or annoyance that would not fit the existing language of conduct “likely to cause” nuisance or annoyance.
This and some of the other proposals will be discussed at a webinar taking place on 10 July 2023, you can sign up on this link.