Institute launches tool for providing evidence to court of harm of ASB on communities

The Chartered Institute of Housing has launched a new tool designed to help social landlords in giving evidence to courts about the harmful impact of anti-social behaviour on a community rather than just individuals.

The Community Harm Statement has been developed in partnership with Kettering Borough Council and the Social Landlords Crime and Nuisance Group.

It is intended to help landlords’ barristers answer questions from judges about the background to a case, its impact on the community, and resources. The CIH believes it will be particularly useful for pulling together relevant information on longer, more complex cases.

A pilot involving 11 landlords over the last six months has seen the tool used in 21 court cases.

Grainia Long, CIH chief executive, said: "The Community Harm Statement is an industry-leading document that will be useful for social landlords to adopt as part of their toolkit for tackling ASB.

“It has been designed to help social landlords when they take legal action on ASB to present evidence to the court in a consistent manner, and in a way that properly captures the impact not only on individuals but also the wider community. As such it is an opportunity to give communities a stronger voice in the judicial process.”

Steve Boyd, chief executive of Solihull Community Housing, which took part in the pilot, said its experience was that the Statements were effective and that judges took notice of them.

“We feel it is important that community suffering is heard and the statements paint a more detailed picture of how neighbourhoods can be damaged by the behaviour of individuals,” he added.

The CIH said it would be working with the social housing sector to encourage all landlords to implement the Community Harm Statement.