Anti-social behaviour: new guidance for social housing residents

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has published new guidance to help social housing tenants when faced with anti-social behaviour.

The guidance forms a part of the Social Housing White Paper’s Charter for Social Housing Residents commitment to support residents facing anti-social behaviour (ASB). It aims to provide guidance on the roles and responsibilities of the agencies involved in tackling ASB.

Read the full guidance on the government’s website.

We worked closely with MHCLG as the guidance was developed. We emphasised the importance of providing a balanced view on the roles of different organisations working to tackle ASB, as well as acknowledging that resolution might be difficult to achieve in some cases.

We support the aims of the document in assisting residents to better understand where to go for help and support, and were pleased some of our feedback was reflected in the final version. However, it’s crucial that we ensure residents have realistic expectations of their housing association and we will continue to work with MHCLG about how we can manage this.

We also flagged possible limitations in resolving ASB through a third party representative whilst adhering to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and suggested references to obtaining residents’ consent on data-sharing be included where applicable.

MHCLG will be engaging with the housing association sector to share the guidance with residents. We will continue to highlight the importance of setting realistic expectations to further clarify to residents that on some of the issues outlined, landlords are only be able to advise residents to report the matter to the police.