REFORM UK MP Lee Anderson will this week call for “feral families” who bring misery communities to be booted out of council housing.
The outspoken MP wants a “three strikes and you’re out” approach to end a “nightmare” for law-abiding families.
Warning that the country is “turning into a lawless society,” he said: “On every council estate in the country, every social housing estate throughout the country, we have nuisance tenants, nuisance families, feral families who are creating mayhem for the vast majority of law-abiding, hard-working people who just want to go to work each day, pay the rent, be good citizens, behave themselves…
“This is being ruined by these feral families who are doing crime, not working.”
Mr Anderson, one of Reform’s five MPs, will make the case for tougher action in a debate he has secured on Wednesday.
As to what will happen to evicted households, he said they could “go and live in a tent somewhere”.
He claims that when families responsible for antisocial behaviour have been moved to a different home they have brought their problems to a new neighbourhood.
Adamant that problem households should face consequences, he said: “If it’s you or your children being nuisances on the estate, then I’m sorry. There are consequences to your actions.
“Go and live somewhere else but we’re not having it because that house can go to a decent family.”
Research by Savanta published last year found 52 per cent of adults were not confident in the police’s ability to tackle antisocial behaviour in their local area.
Three in 10 people who experienced of witnessed this behaviour said it made them feel unsafe walking alone.
The Office for National Statistics’ Crime Survey for England and Wales found that in the 12 months to March just 47 per cent of over-16s agreed that the police and local council were “dealing with the anti-social behaviour and crime issues that matter in the local area”.
Mr Anderson is convinced that if people face the threat of losing their home as a result of the actions of family members “they will start behaving themselves”.
The previous Government’s action plan recommended that people should face eviction after “three proven instances of anti-social behaviour followed by three warnings from your landlord”.
Resolve, the community safety organisation, has said that “many questions” need to be answered before the policy can be seriously considered – including how a three-strikes rule would work in practice and what impact there would be on homelessness.
A spokesman said: “The ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy is one that appeared in the last Government’s antisocial behaviour action plan (2023) and received a significant amount of criticism from those working in community safety. The drivers of ASB are complex, and tackling antisocial behaviour requires a trauma-informed approach.
“This policy is not trauma-informed and would be incredibly difficult to implement in reality. As we told the previous Government when they first consulted on this policy two years ago, we need clarification about how these plans might work in reality and what the legislation would look like.
“For instance, what counts as a ‘strike’? Who makes the judgement? What will be the impact on homelessness? How will people be ‘de-prioritised’? There are many questions that need to be answered before this policy could ever be seriously considered.”
A Government spokesman said: “Social landlords already have powers to remove tenants that carry out antisocial behaviour, and we expect them to make use of these powers to crack down on it. We are determined to tackle antisocial behaviour across the UK.
“As part of our safer streets mission, we will deliver thousands of extra neighbourhood police and community support officers and bring in tougher measures to tackle persistent anti-social behaviour in our communities.”