Conservative Council First in UK to Receive RESPECT Accreditation

Conservative controlled Tamworth Borough Council is celebrating after becoming the first local authority landlord in the country to receive a prestigious accreditation for its work to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Council landlords and social housing providers across the country are inspected and rated by Independent body HouseMark on how effective they are at working to reduce ASB and make life better for tenants.

Tamworth Borough Council is the first council landlord in the UK to be awarded a three-year accreditation for its RESPECT charter, after 18 months of intensive assessments by HouseMark.

HouseMark scrutinised all aspects of the council’s work to reduce ASB and compared them against what other authorities and social landlords are doing.

Areas highlighted by the inspectors as best practise include commitment to reducing ASB, support to victims and witnesses by keeping them involved and informed at all times, the use of a service directory to improve accessibility of the service, a range of enforcement measures, a zero tolerance approach to ASB, and encouraging individuals and communities to take responsibility.

The community safety hub, based at Tamworth police station, acting as a one-stop shop where council staff and other organisations work together to tackle ASB, was singled out for special praise and held up as an example to be copied nationally.

The accreditation will be held by Tamworth Borough Council until November 2015.  However, TBC is not resting on its laurels and an action plan is already under way to make the best even better and build on the existing success.

Plans include the appointment of a new Housing ASB co-ordinator based at the community safety hub, a new IT system to better track cases and keep action plans up to date, and more efficient budgeting.

Cllr Michael Greatorex, Cabinet member for Housing, said, “Tackling anti-social behaviour was rated as one of the top priorities by our tenants and this is about responding to them.  We are now more confident that tenants can expect a good service when they experience difficulties.

“The housing team remains at the forefront of service improvement, and I am delighted that this has been recognised with this national accreditation.”