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MPs and top police officers urge Government to clampdown on unregulated 'bail hostels'

Birmingham City Centre - Andrew Fox
Birmingham City Centre - Andrew Fox

Suburban neighbourhoods are becoming “centres for criminality”, police said on Saturday evening, as thousands of family homes are being converted into “unlicensed bail hostels,” a Telegraph investigation can reveal.

Tens of thousands of ex-offenders and vulnerable people in England are being housed in these homes by “criminal landlords” leading to antisocial behaviour, drug abuse and violence, with no say from residents.

On Saturday evening MPs, police leaders and housing experts all called on the Government to act, so that these homes could be regulated to stop violence “spilling out onto the streets.”

Private landlords and housing associations should provide support for the residents of these houses, but The Telegraph has learnt this rarely happens, leading to unstable housing which leads to criminals being more likely to reoffend.

Earlier this year the prison inspectorate found that high-risk criminals including violent and sexual offenders were being released from prison with nowhere to live, with two thirds of those released into unstable accommodation going onto reoffend within 12 months.

David Jamieson, Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands, said: “What were decent neighbourhoods have quickly gone downhill and become centres for criminality.

"What I have seen myself in North Birmingham, the number of pockets of areas is mainly those sort of Victorian or Edwardian-type big houses that are the ones that mainly attract multi-occupants.

“It starts with antisocial behavior, people on the streets, drug pushers being in the area. And then sometimes it spills out into quite serious violence on the streets.

“Regulation needs to come from central Government. At the moment the law is quite free and easy around those areas. Some of those landlords are actually criminals who are making money out of people's misery.”

Unregulated bail hostels often contain a volatile mix of ex-prisoners and drug addicts - PA
Unregulated bail hostels often contain a volatile mix of ex-prisoners and drug addicts - PA

Birmingham City Council said that the property where a 27-year old man charged with murder and seven counts of attempted murder, Zephaniah McLeod, was living, was such a property.

Although bail hostels, otherwise known as approved premises, are tightly regulated to manage their risk to society, these unregulated equivalents have little to no supervision, and no regulation.

Private landlords and smaller housing associations are able to charge higher rents by taking in vulnerable people who often claim housing benefit from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), but these landlords often do not provide necessary support or supervision to their tenants.

These family homes up and down the country contain a volatile mix of ex-prisoners, drug addicts, those with severe mental-health issues, refugees, and women fleeing domestic abuse.

Research found that in Birmingham alone there were roughly 10,000 units of this type of accommodation in the city as well as thousands of spaces in cities including Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol.

In order to charge higher rents paid by housing benefit, landlords need to make a claim to the local council so they can get 'exempt' status.

More than minimal care support

Marcus Johns, who is authoring an upcoming report for the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) where he will stress the need for regulation, said: “Case law dictates that there needs to be more than minimal care support and supervision to get these provision, but in England, there is no one that regulates what level of care is being provided.”

Steve McCabe, MP for Selly Oak, in Birmingham, said he is aware of several such properties in his constituency.

He said: “The problem with these things is we have mixed together unofficial bail hostels, with accommodation for vulnerable people.

“The police are not very keen on these things because they don't get notified when they open up.

“The only way they find out about these places is when you start to get a number of complaints from local residents about things that are happening.

“So when you go to the door at three in the morning and say, ‘Sorry, I’ve got to get up for work or my kids have got to get up for school, can you turn the music down?’, you have no idea that the person who is going to greet you at that door with a 12-inch blade was recently released from prison after serving a sentence for violent crime.

“They should be regulated. They should be run by someone who passes a fit and proper test.”

A Government spokesperson said: “Supported housing must be of good quality and meet the needs of the vulnerable people it supports. We are working closely with councils and partners to develop a range of measures to ensure strengthened oversight in this area.”

“We are committed to tackling and preventing antisocial behaviour – and the law empowers police and councils to respond quickly and effectively.”

“We’re also recruiting over 1,000 new probation officers to keep the public safe by supervising high-risk offenders as well as supporting less dangerous criminals with underlying issues such as drug and alcohol addiction.”

Woman lived in fear for her life living next door to an unofficial bail hostel

A 53-year-old woman from the West Midlands said she feared for her life while living next to one of these properties.

She lived in the house from the age of 10, but because of social-care costs she had to sell it and move next door.

"The road where we are is very nice. It's lovely and quiet and peaceful. It's all family orientated. We all know each other, we'll help out each other.

"This man bought the house and we didn’t know he was going to turn it into what he did, or we wouldn’t have sold it to him. They’ve been an absolute nightmare.

"One lad in one bedroom used to do drugs and used to have his daughter there, he also used to have girls there, at one point it was like having a knocking-shop next door.

"The couple downstairs were always arguing, they had mental-health issues, he was on drugs and used to knock her around.

"The police were coming and going because she called them because he hit her.

"The bloke upstairs sexually assaulted the girl below, she was only 17. He then was moved out and taken to court.

"When they argued it woke up the whole close, they had parties during lockdown until 5am, and the police said there was nothing they could do.

"With the couple downstairs, the girl used to say to me: ‘I’ve just bought my Christmas presents, I bought him a machete’.

"While they were there we were on tenterhooks because we didn’t know what he was going to do because of his mental-health issues.

"The man who owns it lives in Essex. He doesn't want to know as long as he gets his money but he doesn’t get any rent off them because they don’t have to pay rent.”