National award for work to tackle anti-social behaviour

A HOUSING Trust has received national recognition for its work in tackling anti-social behaviour.

Halton Housing Trust has become one of only a handful of housing organisations in the north west to be accredited by the Housemark and Social Landlords’ Crime and Nuisance Group.

Some of the ways the Trust has tackled anti-social behaviour include using noise monitoring equipment, introducing Good Neighbour Agreements and part-funding two Police Community Support Officers.

The Trust has also promoted intergenerational tolerance by setting up schemes such as the Queens Close community garden project.  This included children from Victoria Road Primary School working with older residents to create a vegetable garden on a former disused area of land. 

Jonathan Horsfall, Area Housing Manager with Halton Housing Trust, said: “Achieving this accreditation is a sign that we are not just doing what our customers expect from us but we are doing it extremely well.

“The emphasis at the Trust is on providing a quality service to our customers in all areas, including tackling and preventing anti-social behaviour, which if not tackled effectively can have a very negative impact upon people’s lives.”

The Trust is already planning further improvements to the service including investigating the feasibility of establishing a witness support group, developing a mapping system to plot anti-social behaviour hotspots and creating a Youth Forum.

Inspectors from the organisations spent three weeks at the Trust’s offices checking its practices against nine criteria.

Their report concluded that the Trust ‘focuses on early intervention’, staff have a ‘high level of commitment to tackling anti-social behaviour’ and they are committed to involving customers and improving services in this area.

It also made several recommendations about how the service could develop in the future.

Nick Atkin, Chief Executive of Halton Housing Trust, said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive this recognition of our hard work and sustained focus upon tackling anti-social behaviour.

“We will continue to develop the service even further to ensure our customers can enjoy their home environment and feel safe and secure.
 
“We have taken on board the recommendations made in the report by HouseMark and we will use these to further strengthen our services in the future.”

The accreditation lasts for three years when the Trust will apply for it to be renewed.