Blears: Nuisance neighbours do respond to intervention
Home Office Minister Hazel Blears has said that an analysis of the case files of more than 100 of the worse problem neighbours has shown that intervention does work.
Announcing the results of the review, she revealed that 66 per cent of cases showed improvement upon follow-up visits, with 39 per cent of those targeted saying the enforcement action had changed their behaviour for the better.
Two-thirds of the cases examined were families, a quarter had previously been evicted because of their behaviour from other accommodation and 38 per cent of the children were not attending school regularly.
Twenty-nine percent had mental health problems, 27 per cent had problems with drugs and 50 per cent of the cases involved threatening or intimidating behaviour.
The Home Office Minister said there would be £1.25 million of Home Office funding to spread the intervention scheme to new action areas.
This involves “intensive” family support where individuals and families are offered a “last chance” to change their behaviour. Measures used include acceptable behaviour contracts, parenting orders, anti-social behaviour orders and on-the-spot fines.
Ms Blears, said that nuisance neighbours were not a trivial problem, with the reality being “pure hell” for individuals and communities affected.
She added: “It is clear from the work of our expert panels on neighbour nuisance that we must now clamp down further on the problem families who, although small in number, cause disproportionate damage to their communities.
“That is why we are investing £1.25 million 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.”
The nuisance neighbour panel will continue for another year, and she said that more than 1,000 families will be targeted.
