Agenda item

To receive a report from Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety.

RECEIVED a report from Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety.

NOTED:

i)             This was a new piece of work for the Community Safety Unit as it had come to light when attending addresses to investigate claims of anti-social behaviour that in fact Cuckooing was taking place at the property. This is where the resident is often confined to one or two rooms with the rest of the dwelling having been taken over by criminal exploiters (often drug dealers). They may also be victim to physical and other abuse by the exploiter.

ii)            Because we know that one of the unintended consequences of on street enforcement can be to drive criminal activity out of sight, there needs to be an alertness to the risk that vulnerable people might be exploited for use of their properties by criminals. The risk to the criminal exploiter is minimised as they are able to implicate the legitimate resident in any criminal or anti-social behaviour.

iii)           The Community Safety Unit work with a number of partners and Council officers to identify and protect vulnerable people at their addresses.

iv)           The Council’s Environmental Protection Team (EPT) have undertaken work on properties which have untidy front gardens, and which may pose a risk to occupants who might be vulnerable to cuckooing.

v)            The EPT is made up of 5 officers and a team leader and are a council resource which has been augmented with external funding to allow for a more proactive response.

vi)           Referrals for this element are generally related to properties that have front gardens/yards that might be overgrown with vegetation or rubbish dumped or littering in them, giving an outward signal of potential vulnerability of the residents.

vii)          The Safer and Stronger Communities Board receive funding from the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and allocate an element of this to the new project which allows for additional focused work to be carried out by the EPT at high risk addresses without recharge.

viii)        The aim of the project is to deter burglars and cuckooing of vulnerable people’s addresses – providing a speedy service to reduce vulnerability through improving the appearance of vulnerability at at least 20 high risk addresses in order to reduce crime and abuse of the resident by exploiting criminals.

ix)           The project is proceeding well. In quarter three visits have been carried out at addresses that were identified as potentially vulnerable as they had a build-up of rubbish and poorly maintained front gardens.

x)            So far eight addresses have been found to have issues with rubbish and accumulations outside (and sometimes inside) the properties and have vulnerable occupants. The vulnerabilities relate to mental health conditions (some are hoarding) and vulnerable due to age also.

xi)           Four of the addresses were jointly visited with colleagues from social services due to the vulnerability of the occupants in order to support and follow up, and also referred for colleagues to follow up on security measures.

xii)          In addition to this project the Council’s Community Safety Unit may be alerted to or come across addresses where there is a potential or evidence of cuckooing. The team are currently dealing with four such cases.

xiii)        There are similarities in many of these cases. The tenants are likely to have drug, alcohol and/or mental health issues and some of them owe money to the criminals for a drug debt or have been ‘befriended’ by drug dealers who have then effectively taken over the addresses to use to deal drugs from.

xiv)        The team have been able to secure or are seeking tenancy moves, provide additional support and improve security at addresses.

xv)         The Community Safety Unit are looking at developing a further piece of work around Council housing as well as looking at increasing the number of housing audits so that there are more points of contact.

xvi)        The Unit welcome people contacting them with any concerns regarding properties, tenants, a vulnerable person etc. Public engagement and sharing concerns and information was strongly encouraged.

xvii)       In conclusion Andrea said that she would be more than happy to report back to Crime Scrutiny at a later date on how the project is progressing.

Action: Andrea Clemons, Head of Community Safety

Following Andrea’s update, the following comments and questions were raised.

Q.        How long has this issue been going on?

A.        It is a relatively new issue. The Community Safety Unit has been involved in the work to address cuckooing for approximately six months, following conversations with the Council’s Housing and Environmental Protection Team.

Q.        Are you concentrating specifically on council housing?

A.        No, any address that raises concerns will be investigated.

Q.        Are the reported incidences in certain areas of the borough? Are they any trends when looking at locations?

A.        The properties and where they are located in the borough have not come as a shock.

Q.        Have you compared the number of Cuckooing cases in Enfield with any other boroughs across London.

A.        Yes, we have looked at examples of cuckooing in other areas however, these have not necessarily been in other London Boroughs.

Q.        Have Housing Association properties been included in the ongoing project?

A.        Yes, we have touched on this and will look at working more closely with them, with more collaboration taking place.

Q.        How many people involved in Cuckooing are on the Gang Matrix?

A.        There are lots of issues around this however, it is not possible to provide exact figures.

Councillor Dey said this feels like a very pro-active project and a great thing to be doing. It feels like the Community Safety Unit and its partners are on the front foot with this issue and it is clear that something positive is being done.

Councillor Brown re-iterated this comment and said that this was a really important initiative. Her concern however was whether the project was in danger of being ‘swamped’?

Andrea acknowledged this concern and explained that part of the thinking behind for instance the housing audits was to spread the load across different council teams so that there was varied and extra involvement in the project, which would ultimately mean more people looking at the issues that may arise. There was also work planned with charities and third-party sectors for mapping as more work was required around this issue.

Councillor Brown also felt that there was so much out there that could potentially be an issue, and this was very worrying when it came to an issue such as Cuckooing.

Andrea said it is often about having that professional curiosity, whereby if something doesn’t feel right make a judgement and probe further if necessary.

The Chair thanked Andrea for her informative and interesting overview and looked forward to receiving an update at a future meeting once the project had been up and running for a few more months.

Action: Andrea Clemons/ Susan O’Connell, Governance & Scrutiny Officer.