Violent or threatening tenants could face 10 year ban from Reading social housing

Plans to ban seriously violent or threatening council tenants from accessing social housing for up to 10 years have been approved.

Three-quarters of residents who responded to the consultation expressed their support for increasing the current ban of three years to between five and 10 years.

And Reading Borough Council’s (RBC) Housing, Neighbourhoods and Leisure committee approved the changes and other alterations to the housing allocations policy at a meeting last Wednesday (November 10).

Currently, if you have been evicted from social housing for breach of tenancy – you will be excluded for three years from your eviction date.

But the council says after three years some residents are still not suitable to become a tenant due to ongoing bad behaviour.

Following the newly-approved changes, those applying for social housing who have been previously evicted due to serious, threatening or violent behaviour which has not been addressed, will not qualify for the RBC housing register for a minimum period of five years.

This could increase to up to 10 years “on reasonable consideration of all the relevant facts”.

Reported cases of anti-social behaviour in Reading have increased by around 47 per cent in Reading in the past five years, with 230 reports in 2016/17 and 338 in 2020/21.

At the meeting, councillors Josh Williams and Meri O’Connell both raised questions about the up to 10-year-ban.

Cllr Williams asked who determines how long the ban is and what basis that decision is made, while Cllr O’Connell asked what happens if the person exhibiting the aggressive violent behaviour has dependants.

Responding, housing service manager Bryony Hall said there will be an assessment on re-application, which already happens, with the potential length of time increased.

Professionals linked to the individuals would be contacted to understand whether or not there has been any conviction for that kind of behaviour since the time that they were banned from the register.

Ms Hall said the sanctions would mostly be for shorter periods but it would give the opportunity to ban residents for up to ten years when needed.

This would be for people with “violent histories who apply for housing without addressing previous behaviours and who may have had further convictions subsequent to the last time they were banned”.

Only four individuals have had the sanction applied to them in the last five years, she added.

Councillor Ellie Emberson, lead member for housing, said: “We are talking about a minority of people who are causing really serious issues.”

And she said those in this situation with dependants would be supported through other means than the housing register.

Other planned changes to the housing allocations policy that have been approved include:

Simplifying the housing register by reducing the number of bands (this will not impact the priority that individual applications are awarded relative to other applications)

Key worker quota queue giving more opportunities for key workers to access social housing

Changes to make it easier for those in council housing to move homes

Creating a separate the general needs Housing Register for those that require adapted homes.

Cllr Emberson said the changes are “really meaningful”.

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• Reading
• reading borough council