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BBC News
13 hours ago
- BBC News
A neighbour threatened dad with a knife - why won't the housing association act?
Over the past year, Dilara's next-door neighbour has threatened her father with a knife and damaged their says she also smashed her sister's car windscreen with a hammer."I'm just scared," says the 17-year-old beauty therapy student, who lives with her family in south London, "it doesn't feel like a home to me anymore".She says she struggled when doing her GCSEs last year as noise from the neighbour kept her awake - and the issue is still affecting her college studies."I'm really tired," she says, adding that sometimes she can't make it to school because she's so people have contacted Your Voice, Your BBC News telling us how they have dealt with relentless noise, vandalism, death threats and even physical assaults by neighbours. It comes after we reported on a couple plagued by anti-social behaviour earlier this the housing ombudsman told us complaints about such issues had doubled over the last five years and authorities needed to work more collaboratively to protect people. Knife-threat neighbour still living next door Dilara's father Ecevit, 50, says when he told their neighbour to turn the music down at 04:00 one morning in January, she came out with a incident left him "shaking". The neighbour was arrested but released on bail and was back home the next neighbour pleaded guilty to threatening "a person with a blade/sharply pointed article in a public place" and will be sentenced in July. But the anti-social behaviour has month, she allegedly smashed the car windscreen of one of Ecevit's other daughters. The neighbour has now been charged. Melissa, 25, who needs the car to get to work, says she was in "shock" when she discovered what had family believe their housing association, Wandle, has failed to act over the numerous cases of anti-social behaviour, despite much of it being recorded on cameras."What is it going to take for them to actually take action and do something to safeguard us and to protect us? Do they expect her to kill us? How is it not enough?" Melissa says the windscreen incident has "really affected" her and that, along with other members of her family, she now suffers with 29, the eldest daughter in the family says: "There's no real action. There's no real urgency, it's just brushed under the carpet." Anne Waterhouse, chief executive of Wandle, said the housing association was "deeply sorry about the distress caused to the resident enduring this unacceptable level of anti-social behaviour"."Our community safety team has been working with the impacted family, the police, the local authority and several external agencies to resolve the serious anti-social behaviour issues being experienced."Ms Waterhouse added that Wandle was currently assessing whether the family's property would "benefit from enhanced security during this difficult time".But the family say their neighbour has also been failed by the system."It's also a failure for someone who is clearly very vulnerable and is struggling with their mental health. And you know she deserves all the help that she needs, as well as considering my family's safety," Cihan says.A Met Police spokesperson said the local Safer Neighbourhoods Team was aware of a "pattern of behaviour" and was working to support the family, as well as liaising with housing associations and mental health services. Exclusive data from the housing ombudsman shows the number of complaints about how social landlords have dealt with anti-social behaviour in England have increased by 119% over four years - from 552 in 2020, to 1,207 in watchdog found many social landlords were failing to protect tenants from anti-social Blakeway, the housing ombudsman for England, says in about "two out of three cases" he looks at involving anti-social behaviour "something has gone wrong"."In some of the most serious cases, really losing sight of the issues, losing sight of the victim, and the impact of that is deeply shocking," he says. 'I don't sleep' Others contacted us with similar stories - including Cheryl, in Shoreham-by-Sea, who says four years of complaints about her neighbour have resulted in little action from the says loud music, shouting, abuse and other forms of disquiet have made her life a misery."I don't sleep. It's like sharing a house with these people, and it affects every part of everything. I can't go out," she adds. "My routine revolves around them, so I sneak in and out when it's quiet, because it's been dangerous if I don't."Cheryl says she installed cameras around her house because she feels neighbour of Cheryl says anti-social behaviour is impacting her life both say they have been let down by the woman's landlord, Adur & Worthing Councils. Cheryl says she has been told not to contact them anymore, with the council calling her claims "vexatious".The council tells us recent complaints from Cheryl are "unfounded" and "hundreds of hours of officer time have been put into understanding the situation and providing support where it is required". This has led to an "improved situation", it a statement, the council cited "two independent ASB [anti-social behaviour] Case Reviews led by two other councils, both of which have supported the actions we have taken in this case."The BBC has seen video footage showing multiple instances of shouting, swearing and drinking outside Cheryl's flat, which is above the woman' put all of Cheryl's allegations to her neighbour, who did not want to be interviewed but disputed Cheryl's claims and said she felt harassed because she was being filmed. She also told us she was vulnerable. Sussex Police said it had received "multiple reports of anti-social behaviour between neighbours" since 2021. It said a 61-year-old woman had been issued with a Community Protection Notice, and in August 2024 was ordered to complete a community resolution for a public order a statement, the force told us it "understands the impacts of anti-social behaviour on victims and all reports are taken seriously". It said it had "engaged with all parties involved, including the local authority, to identify a satisfactory resolution".Cheryl says the impact of living in this situation has been devastating and she has spent time in hospital after a suicide attempt."It's heartbreaking. It doesn't feel safe, life is hell. It's horrible. It's not a way to live." Many people who contacted us said they felt ignored by the authorities and isolated as no official body has taken ownership of the Henderson, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, which represents housing associations, said persistent anti-social behaviour caused "deep distress" but stressed housing associations treated it seriously."Many have dedicated, specialist teams whose role it is to manage such cases, to liaise with victims and alleged perpetrators, and to mediate swift resolutions."Mr Blakeway, the housing ombudsman, said there were laws in place to protect people but there could be a "breakdown" in "cooperation between different agencies".In many of the cases we have heard about, we were told that people on both sides aren't getting the support they need."Social landlords need more support from mental health services, who will be under their own pressures," Mr Blakeway said. "But then social landlords themselves also need to recognise that they need to develop skills to handle mental health issues effectively themselves." Additional reporting by Tara Mewawalla and Bobbi you are suffering distress or despair, details of help and support in the UK are available at BBC Action Line
BBC News
13-03-2025
- Health
- BBC News
What does NHS England do? And why is it being abolished?
The government has announced NHS England will be abolished to "cut bureaucracy" and reform how the National Health Service is changes will not impact anyone's access to the NHS - but Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it would bring management of the health service in England "back into democratic control" and free up money for front-line services. Around 9,000 administrative roles are being cut at NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care as part of the changes - amounting to roughly half of all roles at the two organisations. As part of Your Voice Your BBC, we asked for your questions on the plans and what they could mean for you - below we have answered them for you. What does NHS England do? NHS England is the organisation which leads the health service in England. It was given autonomy by the Conservatives in 2012 with the aim of freeing the health service from interference by takes the money provided by the government and funnels it into the different parts of the health has therefore been NHS England's job to translate ministers' priorities into the services people get on the front body is also responsible for things like overseeing training and collecting data, as well as managing GP announcement will not impact how the NHS is structured in other UK regions. Did this decision come out of the blue? Within the NHS and Westminster, the writing has been on the wall for NHS England for some in the latter years of the Tory government, health ministers expressed frustration that they were not in charge of the day-to-day running of the health Labour came into power, it was clear Health Secretary Wes Streeting wanted more control of the NHS and saw a lot of duplication and England's chief executive Amanda Pritchard recently said she would step down at the end of the March and a number of her senior leadership team have followed that respect, it was clear there was going to be significant reform - but this is as big a change as you could possibly get at the heart of the NHS management structure. What is a 'quango' - and why do ministers think 'bureaucracy' is a problem? These are two words we have heard the government use a lot when setting out these this context, bureaucracy is a stand-in word for a system that is particularly complicated, or requires excessive amounts of administration, paperwork, regulations or layers of made it clear he thinks this admin is getting in the way of delivering health also heard him describe NHS England as the "world's largest quango" - a term that stands for Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation. In short, they are bodies like regulators and advisory groups, which are funded by taxpayers but not directly controlled by central government. They do things on behalf of the government, but at an arm's length. They range from big organisations you will have heard of like NHS England, Network Rail and the Environment Agency to smaller ones like the British Film Institute and Gambling Commission. Their numbers have fallen by more than half since 2010 because David Cameron's coalition government abolished nearly 300 - but there are still more than 300 across the has set up more than 20 since winning the election last July, including Great British Energy and Skills total budget for quangos in 2022/23 - when the latest figures were published - was £353bn. Will local authorities have more control over decision-making and budgets? It looks likely that some of the responsibilities NHS England currently holds will be devolved down to regional Hunt, the former health secretary, has talked about how he felt NHS England was stifling of the arguments being made about NHS reform is that if you move decision-making down to a local level and nearer to patients, it will be local health leaders who are more attuned to the needs of patients in the area making those will know what local populations need and where the weaknesses are - and that, in theory, could improve services for patients in different parts of the country. Will this mean an increase in funding to the NHS and better access to medicines? Thursday's announcement was not about funding - that is expected in the already know NHS is getting an uplift of about 3-4% next year and we do not yet know what spending will look like beyond access to medicines, it is the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence - which is separate from NHS England - which sets the guidelines on what treatments are judged affordable and cost a new drug is produced by the pharmaceutical industry, the institute will decide if the NHS can afford it and whether it is better than other drugs that are used.
