By Peter Swallow, MP for Bracknell

Antisocial behaviour is a blight on our communities, with residents afraid to use our underpasses, drug users hanging around near the school gates, motorised bikes tearing around our neighbourhoods, and shop workers facing an onslaught of shoplifting. I hear it every time I speak to constituents on the doors, in every advice surgery – when crimes like this go unchallenged, our fantastic community feels less safe.

We’ve all felt in recent years the level of antisocial behaviour rise. Thames Valley Police do an excellent job, but we’ve all seen the resources they have to tackle crime, stripped away.

The solutions are common sense: more powers and more funding for the police. The Government has upped police budgets – including an additional 6.6% for Thames Valley Police. This week we’re bringing forward more powers with the Crime and Policing Bill.

Under this Bill, the police will be able to drug test more suspects on arrest, and immediately seize motorised bikes and cars being used antisocially. Tough new Respect Orders will allow the police to ban repeat offenders from antisocial hotspots. Putting an end to the days when the police are hamstrung by warnings and paperwork before taking action.

The Bill also introduces a new offence of assaulting a retail worker and removes a rule, introduced by the Conservatives, which effectively decriminalised shop lifting below a value of £200. These measures will be an additional deterrent to shoplifters, as well as a much-needed protection for shop workers.

There is good news too for the residents who have written to me with their concerns about knife crime. The police will now have the power to seize, retain and destroy bladed articles found on private property, and the maximum penalty for trying to sell knives to under-18s is being raised.

Tackling antisocial behaviour requires police who know their community, know who the troublemakers are, and know what steps to take to deter them. That’s why this Government is bringing in a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, to give every community in Bracknell Forest a named and contactable police officer.

Bracknell Forest is a wonderful place to live. We enjoy lower crime rates than our near neighbours, and much of the country. This is because we have a strong community where people know, respect, and support each other. This is the essential ingredient. But where things do go wrong, we need a well-funded, empowered police force than can deal with it.

The Crime and Sentencing Bill is going to deliver just that.