Labour plans to force fly-tippers to work in ‘clean-up’ squads picking up their mess and repairing vandalism under plans to get tough on anti-social neighbourhood crime if party wins power
- Reed used speech to say: ‘Those who cause the mess will clean up the mess’
- Home Office figures revealing 1.1m incidents of anti-social behaviour last year
Fly-tippers would be forced to clear up litter and repair vandalism as part of ‘clean-up squads’ if Labour wins power.
In a speech today, shadow justice secretary Steve Reed condemned the ‘scourge’ of anti-social behaviour, warning that offenders need to face consequences.
The scheme would see offenders tasked with clearing up dumped litter while also being hit with fixed penalty cleaning notices.
Mr Reed told an audience in London that Labour will also increase and toughen the use of community sentences to tackle reoffending rates and give a voice to victims and local communities.
The party has pointed to Home Office figures revealing 1.1million incidents of anti-social behaviour last year, as it promised its plans would effectively ‘prevent crime, punish criminals and protect communities’.
Announcing the tougher penalties for fly-tippers, Mr Reed said: ‘Those who cause the mess will clean up the mess.’
In a speech this morning shadow justice secretary Steve Reed condemned the ‘scourge’ of anti-social behaviour, warning that offenders need to face ‘consequences’
The clean-up squad plan would see offenders tasked with clearing up dumped litter while also being hit with fixed penalty cleaning notices.
He will also promise that under Labour, the government would develop ‘the world’s first trauma-informed criminal justice system’, which would use the science of trauma studies across the courts, prison, probation system and elsewhere to address the root causes of crime.
It comes as the party seeks to redeploy Tony Blair’s famous promise that Labour would be ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’, a phrase the former Labour leader used to great effect ahead of the 1997 election victory.
The phrase was also used by shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper in a speech on Thursday, saying ‘it was right then, it is right now, it is what we did then, it is what we will do again’.
Mr Reed, in his speech at Middle Temple, also pledged an end-to-end reform of the criminal justice system.
‘Anti-social behaviour can leave communities feeling broken and powerless. It leads to a spiral of social and economic decline that a Labour government will not tolerate,’ he said.
‘As justice secretary, I will strengthen community sentences to tackle anti-social behaviour and petty crime. Under this government their use has fallen by a half because courts no longer have confidence sentences will ever be carried out.
‘Labour will address that by giving victims and community leaders a prominent role in the oversight of the system.’
The party is proposing community and victim payback boards that will ensure community sentences are carried out and unpaid work suits needs of a local area.