Troublesome tenants may be evicted more swiftly under "zero tolerance" rules for council homes.

Council leaders in Darlington are pledging to get tough on problem tenants, saying they will not tolerate anti-social behaviour and may throw persistent offenders out of their council homes.

A new four-year housing services anti-social behaviour policy sets out what the council expects from tenants and how it will deal with reports of anti-social behaviour and hate crime while supporting victims and witnesses.

Darlington Borough Council says it will deal with such reports "effectively and promptly" and take appropriate action "including legal action when necessary".

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Councillor Kevin Nicholson, cabinet member for health and housing, said the council would "take swift, firm action", which can include eviction, against the small number of tenants who commit anti-social behaviour and flout tenancy agreements.

The Northern Echo: Cllr Kevin Nicholson. Picture: Northern Echo.Cllr Kevin Nicholson. Picture: Northern Echo.

He said: "To have a council house, people are telling me, is a huge honour. That comes with a responsibility.

"You've got to behave in a way that's in-keeping with the rest of the community where you live.

"The message is, those who abuse their council property will lose it. We're very firm on that.

"We will take robust action. It'll be a much quicker journey from the point of complaint to potentially eviction should you not comply.

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"People were feeling they weren't kept up to date and they didn't really know what the outcome of those complaints were."

The council is cracking down on tenants who commit crimes like drug-related offences, violent disorder or persistent low-level anti-social behaviour, noise and trouble with off-road bikes, and they have sought possession of houses in such cases.

"There's a handful of people across Darlington who cause misery for the communities where they live," added Cllr Nicholson.

"They are very rare, but when they do occur they cause a huge amount of harm to local communities.

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He said there were safeguards in the policy: "It's for the small minority of people who do not comply with requests to correct their behaviour over a period of time.

"We would expect people to be given a reasonable chance. It's not going to happen overnight."

He said they had reviewed housing policy and created new tenancy agreements: "We've explicitly said in detail what the expectations of our tenants are.

"We now have the resource. We've put an additional enforcement officer in the housing team so that we can double our capacity for dealing with those complaints."

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The team employs two full-time tenancy enforcement officers to investigate anti-social behaviour reports. It dealt with 365 such cases in 2021 to 2022, most resolved through mediation but tenants were evicted in the most serious cases.

Cllr Nicholson added: "Last year we issued 21 notices relating to possession proceedings, three of which led to evictions.

“While most cases can be resolved through mediation between tenants, we can and will not hesitate to take legal action and we will do whatever is necessary to protect our communities."

The policy will go to the council cabinet for approval on Tuesday, September 6.

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