What is anti-social behaviour?

Anti-social behaviour (ASB) encompasses criminal and nuisance behaviour that causes distress to others. Typical examples include: noisy neighbours, vandalism, graffiti, public drunkenness, littering, fly tipping and street drug dealing.

ASB occupies the space where criminal and civil law overlap. The legal definitions of ASB use concepts from both civil and criminal law. Much of what we consider to be ASB could be covered by criminal law but there are also civil remedies used to address it.

ASB has two legal definitions depending on where it takes place:

  • ASB that occurs within a housing context is defined as behaviour that causes or is likely to cause “nuisance or annoyance”.
  • ASB that occurs in public spaces is defined as behaviour that causes or is likely to cause “harassment, alarm or distress”.

Both definitions rely heavily on the impact of the behaviour rather than the details of the actual behaviour. A wide variety of behaviour can be defined as ‘anti-social’ if it has a negative impact on others.

For more information about what behaviour could constitute ASB, see the Library briefing Tackling anti-social behaviour (April 2020).

How prevalent is anti-social behaviour?

In the year ending September 2023, 1 million ASB incidents were reported to the police.

According to the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW), 36% of people had experienced or witnessed ASB in the year ending June 2024. This was slightly higher than the 34% of people who witnessed ASB in the year ending June 2023.

The CSEW also estimated that 25% of people perceived ASB to be a fairly or very big problem in their local area in the year ending June 2024, whilst 8% of people perceived their local area to have a high level of ASB. The CSEW states that trends across both measures have remained consistent since 2014.

A survey of social housing residents commissioned by the government in 2022 found that 26% of social housing residents had been affected by anti-social behaviour in the past year.

Research published by Nottingham Trent University in 2018 found that those living in social housing were 30% more likely to witness or experience criminal ASB (such as, criminal damage, intimidation and drug dealing) and 20% more likely to witness or experience inconsiderate ASB (such as, loud music, nuisance neighbours and littering), compared to owner occupiers.

How can anti-social behaviour in social housing be addressed?

Anti-social behaviour in social housing

Local authorities and housing associations are required, under section 218A of the Housing Act 1996, to publish ASB policies and procedures so that tenants and members of the public can be informed about the measures landlords will use to address ASB issues in relation to their stock. If a landlord is failing to implement their policy this may form the basis of a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman.

Registered providers of social housing (primarily local authorities and housing associations) are also required to meet regulatory standards which are set by the Regulator of Social Housing. The Regulator proactively seeks assurances that providers are meeting the outcomes set by the regulatory standards. The Neighbourhood and Community Standard outlines the following expectations with regards to ASB and hate incidents: 

Registered providers must have a policy on how they work with relevant organisations to deter and tackle ASB in the neighbourhoods where they provide social housing. 

Registered providers must clearly set out their approach for how they deter and tackle hate incidents in neighbourhoods where they provide social housing. 

Registered providers must enable ASB and hate incidents to be reported easily and keep tenants informed about the progress of their case. 

Registered providers must provide prompt and appropriate action in response to ASB and hate incidents, having regard to the full range of tools and legal powers available to them. 

Registered providers must support tenants who are affected by ASB and hate incidents, including by signposting them to agencies who can give them appropriate support and assistance. (para 2.2)

The ​Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard also requires registered providers of social housing to collect and publish data on tenants’ satisfaction with their landlord’s approach to handling anti-social behaviour. This is intended to ensure that tenants and other interested parties can hold registered providers to account for the services they provide.

Social landlords’ powers to deal with anti-social behaviour

Social landlords have a range of powers and tools at their disposal to tackle anti-social behaviour, for example, they can:

  • use dispute resolution and mediation
  • implement acceptable behaviour contracts
  • use legal remedies, such as community protection notices and injunctions, using powers under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (see more information below)
  • start possession proceedings

Eviction of a tenant is normally an action of last resort.

Section 3 of the Commons Library briefing on Anti-social behaviour in social housing (England) provides further information on the remedies available to social landlords to tackle anti-social behaviour.

In November 2024, the Local Government Association published the results of a survey of local authorities in England and Wales which provides information on authorities’ current views on ASB, the challenges they face and possible solutions.

Housing rights and anti-social behaviour

Certain housing rights can be affected if action for nuisance or anti-social behaviour has been taken against someone, or a person who resides with them, including:

  • the mutual exchange of a property with another social housing tenant;
  • the Right to Buy;
  • qualification for an allocation of social housing; and
  • rights to some forms of assistance under the homelessness legislation.

Section 4 of the Library briefing on Anti-social behaviour in social housing (England) explains in more detail how these rights can be affected.

The government has published guidance for social housing tenants on how they can get help to tackle anti-social behaviour. It sets out the powers, roles and responsibilities of the different local organisations so tenants know where to get help in their situation.

The Conservative government’s Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan (March 2023) committed to “halve the delay between a private landlord serving notice for anti-social behaviour and eviction” and “provide a clear expectation that previous anti-social behaviour offenders are deprioritised for social housing.” (page 4) In January 2024, the Conservative government launched a consultation on reforms to social housing allocations which proposed to:

  • introduce a new mandatory qualification test to disqualify anti-social behaviour offenders from social housing allocations; and
  • require social landlords to evict tenants where there have been three proven instances of anti-social behaviour, and three warnings from the landlord.

The Labour government published a consultation response on 2 September 2024, which confirmed it would not be taking forward the proposed changes to how social housing is allocated and the grounds for eviction. It considered that the proposal to introduce a new mandatory qualification test would not add to local authorities’ existing powers in any meaningful way, and would remove flexibility to design and operate qualification tests in a way that best meets the needs of individual local areas. It also concluded that a new eviction ground was unnecessary as social landlords already have powers to apply to court where eviction is necessary on ASB grounds.

What wider powers are available to tackle anti-social behaviour?

Parts 1 to 4 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 provide a range of powers for the police, local authorities and social housing providers to take action against either specific individuals engaged in ASB, or to prohibit certain activities associated with ASB in a local area.

They are not specific to social housing contexts but could be used in circumstances where the behaviour is impacting social housing residents. For example:

  • Anti-social behaviour civil injunctions can be used to impose restrictions and positive requirements on specific individuals with the aim to prevent them from committing further ASB.
  • Community protection notices can be issued to require an individual to stop certain behaviour or remedy a problem, for example in relation to environmental offences.
  • Public space protection orders can be issued by a local authority to prevent anyone from participating in specified behaviour within a designated area.

These powers are summarised in the Library briefing Tackling anti-social behaviour (April 2020). The Home Office has also published statutory guidance to support local areas to make effective use of the powers (last updated, May 2023).

The Labour government has announced it will legislate for further powers to tackle ASB in its proposed Crime and Policing Bill (not yet tabled). This includes introducing ‘respect orders’, a new civil order that will be issued by a magistrates’ court, on application from the police, a local authority or a social housing provider and will contain certain conditions on an individual aimed at stopping them from participating in ASB. Individuals who breach the conditions of their respect order would be committing a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment upon conviction.

In a ministerial statement in November 2024, Diana Johnson MP, Home Office Minister, said that respect orders will replace existing anti-social behaviour civil orders, with the key difference that breach of a respect order is a criminal offence, rather than the civil ‘contempt of court’ offence that could be committed by breach of an anti-social behaviour civil injunction. The minister suggested that this would enable the police to respond more quickly to those who breach the conditions of their order.

The minister stated that alongside the creation of respect orders, “existing civil injunctions will be renamed as housing injunctions, which will deal with that more low-level antisocial behaviour between neighbours.”

The government has also pledged to introduce new powers to tackle dangerous and anti-social use of off-road bikes, by giving police the power to “quickly destroy the bikes that they seize from offenders” without having to give a warning first.

It also committed in the 2024 King’s Speech to introduce a Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill, which it states will include measures to improve support for victims of ASB.

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