Lee Anderson

It is indeed a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) for securing this debate, and I thank his students for coming to witness it. I suspect that if they come back in 10 years’ time, we will still be debating antisocial behaviour because nothing ever gets done in this place. Antisocial behaviour destroys families, communities and, ultimately, the country. About four years ago, I went to Singapore with the Home Affairs Committee—I am sure the Minister was on a similar flight. I noticed that there was no graffiti, antisocial behaviour or crime. I also did not see a police car or officer all week. Does anybody know why? It is because the consequences of antisocial behaviour in Singapore are a little bit more severe than in this country. My town centre, Sutton-in-Ashfield, is full of yobs, drunkards and people on drugs. The police do turn up, but they do absolutely nothing because they think it is a waste of time. They move the people on, and then they come back the following day. One of my solutions for the Minister is this: if those yobs who keep returning are living on state benefits, we should stop the benefits. It is the same with social housing. People in some of my council estates are creating all sorts of problems for their neighbours. If they are living in social housing and living a life on benefits, and causing problems in my community, why do we not just kick them out of their social housing, stop the benefits and create some real repercussions? A lot of my residents think it is a waste of time to report antisocial behaviour to the police and the council, especially when my Ashfield district council—people have probably seen it in the news recently—is being run by criminals like Councillor Tom Hollis, who has a string of convictions, including lots of antisocial behaviour, under his belt. The solutions are simple. Stop the benefits for these people who are causing problems in our town centre. If they live in social housing, kick them out of the houses. Minister, this is really simple stuff—simple.