Introduction

After a busy and productive week, we want to take the time to debrief and discuss what different organisations highlighted/touched on this year during ASB Awareness Week.

Government announcement

As part of the wider Safer Streets mission, the government announced their Safer Streets Summer Initiative. We were grateful to be invited to their launch at Derby County Football Club.

The Safer Streets Summer Initiative will run from 30 June until 30 September, in over 500 town centres and high streets across England and Wales. It “aims to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour” and “ensure visible, meaningful consequences for those responsible”.

Subsequently, we have seen agencies across the country announcing their local initiatives as part of this wider scheme. For example, Stockport Council announced their Safe4Summer initiative.

Other organisations such as Crimestoppers have announced their own campaigns to support local boroughs.

New YouGov report

During ASB Awareness Week, we also saw Resolve release their annual report. The report found:

    • More than 1 in 4 people (27%) say that ASB has made them feel unsafe in their area.
    • 15% of people have had to consider moving home because of the impact ASB was having on them. 6% have actually moved home because of the impact ASB was having on them.
    • The amount of people that have never heard of the ASB Case Review has decreased year on year from 94% (2022), to 87.5% (2023), to 83% (2024) to now 80% in 2025. However, only 3% of people fully understand how it works.
    • 40% of people said they’d be more likely to report future ASB if they received clear communication about to whom / how to make a report (2024: 38%. 2023: 40%, 2022: 32%).
Housing Ombudsman

This year, the Housing Ombudsman published a report on ‘Learning from: Seever Maladministration’. This is an important read and echoes the issues victims tell us they run into when trying to seek support from their housing provider around anti-social behaviour.

The Housing Ombudsman, Richard Blakeway stated: “This report asks why we repeatedly see similar failings. It provides an opportunity for landlords to reflect on the fundamentals of ASB: what is their role, how to manage expectations, and where to work with others.”

 

College of Policing – new training programme

During ASB Awareness Week, the College of Policing promoted the launch of their new training programme for neighbourhood policing which was launched the week prior (during Neighbourhood Policing Week).

This new training programme will give officers the skills and knowledge to:

    • Build meaningful relationships within communities, supporting forces in developing named, recognisable officers for local areas.
    • Conduct strategic, intelligence-led patrols that target problem areas based on community needs and priorities.
    • Provide specialist capabilities to address anti-social behaviour and the issues that matter most to communities.
    • Work effectively alongside residents and businesses to develop tailored solutions to local problems.
Honourable mentions

Other content during the week included a new podcast from RHE Global (listen to our CEO, Harvi speak about the ASB Case Review on their first episode here).

We also saw Green & Burton ASB Associates put on a webinar around ASB case management.

The Victims’ Commissioner, Baroness Helen Newlove also published a press release during the week.

What did we get up to?

At ASB Help, we were proud to publish our new guide for communicating with victims of anti-social behaviour. We are thrilled that the College of Policing have decided to incorporate this guide into their training programmes for new officers.

We were also happy to announce multiple new sign-ups/renewals of The ASB Help PLEDGE!

Our team were busy providing training across the country throughout the week, and attending events such as the government’s summer initiative launch in Derby and the parliamentary launch of ASB Awareness Week.

As always, we want to thank everybody who helped to raise awareness of the impact of anti-social behaviour this ASB Awareness Week. We will continue to lobby for change, all year round.