Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Minister for Policing has taken to tackle anti-social behaviour within and around areas with a high concentration of exempt accommodation properties, following his visit to Birmingham in January 2022.

The Government is committed to tackling and preventing anti-social behaviour (ASB).

We have provided the police, local authorities and other local agencies with a range of flexible tools and powers they can use to respond quickly and effectively to ASB through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. It is for local areas to decide how best to deploy these powers; they are best placed to understand what is driving the behaviour in question and the impact it is having.

The Beating Crime Plan laid out the Government’s plan for tackling crime and ASB and the fourth round of the Safer Streets Fund will for the first time include ASB as a primary focus.

The Government has provided £1.84m to Birmingham City Council through a pilot to improve the standard and quality of Exempt Accommodation in the city. As part of the pilot, Birmingham City Council is working with West Midlands Police to tackle criminal exploitation of vulnerable people in supported housing by organised crime groups, by sharing information with local neighbourhood policing teams. The local authority has also launched a set of Quality Standards for supported housing, which it is using to accredit local providers and a Charter of Rights for residents.