MP Appeals to Lord Chancellor over Judges 'Lack of Cooperation' On Anti Social Tenants

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 2nd Oct 2002

Vincent Cable, MP, has written to the Lord Chancellor after local social housing agencies (e.g Richmond Housing Partnership; Richmond Churches Housing) have faced serious difficulty in enforcing eviction orders against anti social tenants in the courts.

Unless the offending tenants are guilty of serious violence the courts are showing little support for eviction orders and injunctions.

As a consequence, other tenants are being forced to put up, indefinitely, with loud and persistent noise, drunken and threatening behaviour and other nuisances and social landlords are being forced to spend tens of thousands of pounds on fruitless legal actions.

Vincent Cable said: "I know of about a dozen very serious cases of anti social behaviour on estates in Twickenham and Hampton where residents are having to put up with 'neighbours from hell'."

"But even when the RHP and other social landlords come in on the side of the victims the legal procedures are horrendously complex and the chances are that judges will throw out the case in court."

"There is a case here of non-joined up government, where the different sides of the justice system are not talking to each other".