Radical Government proposals designed to give social landlords new powers to crack down on anti-social tenants simply push the offenders into private rented accommodation, according to the Residential Landlords' Association (RLA).

The Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR) announced its three month consultation document "Tacking Anti-Social Tenants" earlier this month.

But the RLA - which represents landlords with more than £1.2billion worth of property and more than 30,000 tenancies across the UK - responded by calling for a national reference agency to be formed to log details of tenants' behaviour during their tenancies.

Chairman Martin Moylan said: "We welcome moves to tackle anti-social behaviour but what the Government fails to recognise is where these tenants end up once the registered social landlords have washed their hands of them.

"They end up living in properties owned by private landlords in communities where 70% of residents own their own homes. We don't have such stringent powers to evict once they have become anti-social tenants in our properties so we need to be able to take a judgement on each tenant before they move in."

The RLA is addressing the issue of anti-social tenants by introducing an Accreditation Scheme for landlords which, among other requirements, insists that they take up character references for tenants.

Martin Moylan added: "The accreditation scheme will identify reputable landlords who are prepared to adopt standards and abide by an disciplinary code. If we are aiming for that then we should also have some way of identifying reputable tenants.

"Unfortunately the current state of affairs mean that we don't always have the information we need to make a judgement about the type of tenant we're taking on. Many bad apples leave their social housing before they are evicted and without the co-operation of registered social landlords passing on details of their behaviour it's hard for us to know who the consistent troublemakers are."

"If a national reference agency were formed to keep details of people's behaviour during their tenancies in the same way that credit references are kept it would be far easier to handle the problem. You find it harder to get credit if you consistently fail to pay off your debts - why shouldn't you find it harder to get accommodation if you consistently demonstrate anti-social behaviour?

"A tenant should have to agree that documents chronicling their behaviour throughout their tenancy can be made available to landlords of all tenures.

"While a very small minority of tenants will never change there will be others who are more likely to behave once they know that their behaviour is logged, making it more difficult for them to get a choice of accommodation in the private or social sectors."

Martin Moylan added that the RLA would be making representation to the DTLR during the three month consultation period and added: "Our views need to be taken into account. It is commendable to be addressing anti-social behaviour but not if the solutions simply pass the buck to the private sector.

"We all need to work together to ensure that the solution works across all tenures."

Anyone wanting more information about the RLA should visit www.rla.org.uk or call 0161 962 0010.

ENDS April 2002