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Tenants Association
Newsletter
February 2007
RESPECT
(awaiting photo)
Janette Dunne, North Halifax/Lower Valley Operations Manager attended the February Federation meeting to update us on Pennine's progress in signing up to the Government's RESPECT agenda. She explained to the meeting that the Government's RESPECT agenda was about making a clear statement to communities that Anti-Social Behaviour will not be tolerated. RESPECT is about prevention, intervention and support. Janette outlined the self-assessment process Pennine is currently undertaking to identify any gaps in the current service delivery, prior to signing up to the RESPECT agenda. She explained that Pennine could 'sign up' tomorrow but they want to ensure that everything is in place before making such a major commitment.
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- reassure tenants and residents that local concerns around anti-social and nuisance behaviour will be addressed;
- present a statement of desirable or positive behaviour and what it means to be a good neighbour;
- promote a shared set of community standards and expectations around behaviour and highlight the rights and responsibilities of tenants and residents (including children and young people), landlords and other service providers;
- contribute to the sustainment of community regeneration initiatives; and
- contribute to wider anti-social behaviour strategies.
The benefits of Good Neighbour Agreements should be:-
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Janette particularly wanted to focus her presentation to the meeting on the development of Good Neighbour Agreements:
Good Neighbour Agreements can be used for different purposes and in different ways. The overarching aim, however, is to promote positive behaviour. In addition, Good Neighbour Agreements:
- seek to give a clear indication that there is a commitment from the landlord and other agencies to tackling anti-social behaviour
- seek to engage local residents and to encourage them to share responsibility for tackling nuisance behaviour and promoting positive behaviour;
- are used in conjunction with a range of other enforcement and preventative measures to address anti-social behaviour.
Good Neighbour Agreements can be used to do one or more of the following:
- reinforce the tenancy agreement;
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- a reduction in complaints over time;
- fewer voids;
- more applications for homes on previously unpopular estates;
- greater tenant and resident satisfaction;
- a greater willingness among residents to challenge and report anti-social behaviour and
- improved community cohesion.
Janette explained that Pennine would not be looking to develop Good Neighbour Agreements for every estate. Pennine is planning to set up a working group to look at developing a criteria which would help to identify where Good Neighbour Agreements could be used as an effective tool to reduce Anti Social behaviour - the type of areas which would benefit from such an agreement would be estates with multiple problems e.g. high turnover of properties, anti-social behaviour problems, etc. Janette stated that she hoped that she would get some volunteers from the Federation to be involved in developing the Good Neighbour Agreement criteria.
If you are interested in getting involved in this working group ring the Federation Office on 01422 365281 and leave a message on the ansaphone.
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