ABSTRACT
Anti-social behaviour covers a wide range of activities many of which, taken individually, would probably not amount to breaches of the tenancy agreement or even be regarded as anything more than a relatively minor inconvenience. Areas of bad urban housing have existed in Britain ever since the industrialisation of the nineteenth century encouraged mass migration to the towns and cities. Legal responses to anti-social behaviour may be seen as having taken two forms. The first is premised on the belief that, as discussed above, antisocial behaviour is a problem of social housing, and more particularly those who occupy it. The second does not link the problem to a particular tenure or even housing in general but acknowledges that it affects the wider community. Demoted tenancies – which temporarily reduce the security of tenure of, and remove several other rights from, an existing tenant – were introduced by the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003.
