Let the lawyers handle it...

But occasionally central government has ideas that strike me as bizarre, to say the least. Letting housing staff investigate, prepare and present legal cases about nuisance in place of solicitors, for instance, is about as sensible as withdrawing benefits from families found guilty of causing nuisance (HT 21 January, page 7).

There are so many things wrong with this way of thinking that I’m hard pressed to know where to start.

I accept there are some instances – rent arrears for example – where housing staff can do their own preparation and representation in court. But presenting an antisocial behaviour case is a completely different kettle of fish. In all the court hearings I’ve attended there hasn’t been a single case that went entirely to plan. Although we often get the outcomes we want, there have always been moments during the hearing when we rely almost entirely on the expertise of our legal representative. How can a housing officer be expected to match their degree of expertise with a short period of study?

And it doesn’t take a genius to work out whose favour the odds would be in if defendants with professional representation in the form of legal aid were pitted against a housing officer who’s been on a two-dayer.

Victims whose cases end up in the courtroom have already had to put up with a great deal. To give them anything other then the best service we can is nothing short of a travesty. The message going out to tenants would be “if you live in social housing, don’t expect us to spend on your well-being”.

It’s a fine thing for an organisation to look for better ways of doing things, getting value for money and giving their customers a better service – even cuts can produce positive results when done correctly – but to keep cutting once the fat’s been trimmed will inevitably result in nothing less than an amputation.

And I’m quite surprised that Bill Pitt, head of neighbourhood nuisance at Manchester council, seems to be in agreement with the scheme. Every time I’ve heard him talk he’s always pointed out that one of the most important ways for an organisation to deal with antisocial behaviour is to have dedicated solicitors!

My own suggestion as a good way forward is not to spend so much time concentrating on hare-brained schemes and get on with finding better ways of dealing with very low level nuisance complaints, the kind that seem to go on forever. They, oddly enough, take up greater time and resources than the more serious and pressing complaints, occur much more frequently, have a greater tendency to escalate and very rarely end up in court. I wonder how many other antisocial behaviour officers there are out there who would agree?

Amjad Mahmood, via the Housing Today website