In the year ending April 2011, social housing landlords in Gwent had to deal with over 1950 complaints about anti-social behaviour. This was an increase of 400 on the previous year.
Figures from the three major social landlords in Gwent say the increase is down to their policies on anti-social behaviour and they are 100% confident they will break the cycle of fear that residents have about coming forward. In the past residents have been fearful of repercussions on themselves, their home, their cars and other family members if they have made an official complaint about a person or groups causing them problems.
In 2010/11 the three housing associations who between them have thousands of properties all covered by landlord insurance took out twenty-one anti-social behaviour injunctions, eight demotion orders, three anti-social behaviour orders, two premises closure orders, nine possessions and twenty cases of mediation as a result of action they had taken.
Denise Pearce, a community safety co-ordinator of one of the landlords, said “Enforcement action is a last resort; we have found the most effective way to deal with problems is working closely with the people involved. Once someone who is causing anti-social behaviour realises they could lose their home, we find their behaviour does change. Unfortunately there are some others whose behaviour does not change and it is those who we have to take action against.”
The police are also getting involved as some of the youngsters they come across are aged only 14, they will be speaking to the parents of any youngsters causing trouble to find out if the parents can tell them why they are out late at night with no adult supervision. In the past many parents the police have spoken to have been unaware that their children were misbehaving. The police were also quick to stress that most youngsters in the area were well behaved.