I invited Home Secretary Alan Johnson to visit Selly Oak to hear first hand the views of local residents on anti social behaviour, crime and immigration.

He was presented with a petition by local residents who expressed their frustration at the poor performance of Birmingham City Council in tackling anti social behaviour and neighbour nuisance. Mr Johnson said it was a major priority for the Home Office and the Government and he was extremely disappointed to hear that Birmingham is letting people down.

During the hour long session the Home Secretary explained that this is the first government in over 80 years to see crime fall. He praised criminal justice agencies and the progress on neighbourhood policing, community support officers, victims and support for those suffering domestic violence.  He emphasised the need for rapid responses from agencies responsible for tackling anti social behaviour.

He also explained his anger about the opposition of the Conservatives and LibDems to the retention of DNA profiles and the fact it risked letting rapists and murderers go free.

In a challenging session he was asked about knife crime, vandalism, police response times, immigration and repeatedly heard the anger and despair of those suffering anti social behaviour and neighbour nuisance.

On immigration Mr Johnson pointed out that the introduction of the points regime and the tightening up of student visas meant that Britain now has a very tightly controlled system as evidenced by the continual reduction in the figures. He pointed out that opposition proposals for a cap would impact on only one out of ten applications and was actually less rigorous than the present system. He also said that the largest single source of immigration was Brits returning home.

I was grateful that the Home Secretary took the time to listen to our concerns. I work with Alan every day and I know he really cares about these issues. I was glad he heard the truth about anti social behaviour in Birmingham. It's a disgrace that people are being made to wait so long before that council takes any action against nuisance neighbours. If some of these overpaid senior officers had to live next door to this kind of thing, they'd soon change their tune.

Local Councillor Mike Leddy who also attended the meeting called for the council to start using the powers at their disposal. He said, 'It's intolerable that people are suffering for months on end and being fobbed off with excuse after excuse. I'm glad we were able to let the Home Secretary hear from real people just how bad it is.'

The petition calls on the government to take action to make the City Council fulfil its obligations in terms of protecting those who are the victims of anti social behaviour.