Rishi Sunak promises anti-social behaviour crackdown

People who vandalise public spaces will have to repair the damage they cause within 48 hours of being given an order, under new government plans.

Communities will also have a say on how offenders are punished, No 10 said.

The pilot, covering 10 areas, aims to show the public such acts are "quickly and visibly" punished.

But Labour accused the government of "slashing" neighbourhood policing and trying to copy their plan on "tough community payback".

The pilot forms part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour, which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will announce on Monday.

Mr Sunak hopes the measures will stamp out the scourge of anti-social behaviour "once and for all".

The new plans will see police and crime commissioners (PCCs) given funding to ensure people responsible for offences such as graffiti and vandalism start repair work as soon as possible.

Offenders will be made to wear jumpsuits or hi-vis jackets and work under supervision so that they are visible to members of the public, to assure them "justice is being done".

In cases where damage has already been cleaned up, they will be assigned other tasks which benefit their local area, such as litter picking or volunteering in shops.

There are also plans to tackle homelessness and begging within the new measures.

Police and local authorities will be granted new powers to address people who are judged to be causing a "nuisance on the street" - including obstructing shop doorways or begging at cash machines.

Council workers and law enforcement officers will also be given the "tools" to direct people who are deemed to be causing a "nuisance on the street" to health and social services.

Further detail on where the pilots will take place and how much it will cost is expected to be set out in the coming days.

It will be rolled out across England and Wales in 2024.

Communities Secretary Michael Gove separately confirmed the government will ban the sale of nitrous oxide, telling the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg its recreational use is having an "unacceptable" effect on people's perception of safety in public spaces.

He added: "We are doing this because if you walk through any urban park you will see these little silver cannister which are the evidence of people regarding public spaces as arenas for drug taking."

The plans to crack down on anti-social behaviour comes after a highly critical report into the Metropolitan Police by Baroness Casey, which cited austerity as a factor behind the erosion of the London force's frontline policing.

The report, published earlier this week, said London no longer has a functioning neighbourhood policing service as teams have been "decimated" and the force has become "less connected and less accountable".

Ahead of the plan being published, Mr Sunak said: "For too long, people have put up with the scourge of anti-social behaviour in their neighbourhoods.

"These are not minor crimes. They disrupt people's daily lives, hold businesses back and erode the sense of safety and community that brings people together.

"That's why I'm bringing forward a new plan to crack down on this behaviour once and for all - so that everyone can feel proud of where they live."

The plan sets out how the government's "community payback" scheme - where offenders are sentenced by courts to do unpaid work, such as cleaning up public places - will be expanded.

The government has already said it will increase the number of hours of unpaid work offenders are given from five million to up to eight million a year.

Under a new pilot, delivered by the Probation Service working with some local authorities, teams of offenders will be rapidly deployed to clean up more urgent incidents of anti-social behaviour.

It said it will also extend offenders' involvement in campaigns such as Keep Britain Tidy's annual Great British Spring Clean.

Last year 1,500 offenders spent almost 10,000 hours on 300 community clean-up projects across the campaign.

The government aims to double this in 2023.

Last month, Labour said its plans to tackle anti-social behaviour included fly-tippers being forced to remove litter as part of "clean-up squads", and councils being able to make offenders remove graffiti or rubbish they had dumped.

Responding to the government's latest plans, shadow justice secretary Steve Reed said: "The Conservatives have let anti-social behaviour make people's lives a misery by slashing neighbourhood police and letting offenders get away without punishment.

"They have been content to oversee crumbling frontline services meaning these crimes are now plaguing communities, blighting town centres and leaving people feeling unsafe."

Mr Reed said the government was "once again following where Labour has led by trying to copy our plan on tough community payback", and that it was "embarrassing" that all the Conservatives could come up with was a pilot covering only 10 areas.

The remarks follow a speech earlier this week by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accusing the Tories of being "soft" on anti-social behaviour - "the crime that most affects working class communities".