A dedication to Baroness Newlove

Helen knew the consequences of persistent anti-social behaviour in the most terrible way. After months of escalating problems around her family home, her husband, Garry, was murdered in 2007. Rather than retreat from public life, she became a determined voice for people who felt frightened, ignored or dismissed.

Her work repeatedly challenged the idea that anti-social behaviour is somehow “low-level”. In Our Vision for Safe and Active Communities (opens external site) in 2011, she called for communities and public services to work together to reclaim neighbourhoods from crime and disorder.

In 2019, as Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales, she published Anti-Social Behaviour: Living a nightmare (opens external site), reporting that victims of anti-social behaviour were (still) being let down by police, local councils and housing providers, with many victims having to suffer in silence.

A gang targeted my ordinary working family living in an ordinary street in an ordinary neighbourhood with a campaign of vandalism and violence. It culminated with Garry being kicked to death on our doorstep. It seems implausible that 12 years later, I am still writing about anti-social behaviour. But the truth is, depressingly little has changed.

More than a decade on from her first report, her 2024 report Still living a nightmare (opens external site) showed how much remained to be done - particularly for victims suffering the cumulative effects of persistent ASB and dealing with agencies that too often considered each incident in isolation. At the time of publication she stated:

Anti-social behaviour blights lives and communities. All too often it is not addressed effectively, often downplayed, and poorly understood. Despite my previous report setting out clear recommendations, I am disappointed that so little meaningful progress has been made. Too many victims continue to suffer, with many stuck in the same patterns of anti-social behaviour and facing the same perpetrators as five years ago. The time for empty promises is over – we now need real, tangible progress.

Those who knew Helen spoke after her death of her warmth, compassion and kindness (opens external site), but also of her extraordinary determination. She could challenge institutions and speak difficult truths while never losing sight of the individual people behind the policies.

Her legacy is found in the victims she gave a voice to, the institutions she changed, and her enduring insistence that nobody should simply have to live with fear and disorder in the place they call home.

We remember her with gratitude and respect.

FixASB was created after Baroness Newlove’s death and this dedication should not be understood as implying her endorsement, but as a determination to help drive forward an agenda that she so passionately advanced.