OFFICIALS who fail to tackle yobbish behaviour should face the sack, Home Secretary David Blunkett said yesterday.

His comments came as he announced a £22m crackdown on anti-social behaviour in the next year as part of a three-year, £75m programme.

A Home Office action plan set out a host of initiatives to tackle problems such as "neighbours from hell", begging and rundown, dirty council estates.

Council workers and others who fail to take on anti-social behaviour should face the consequences, he said.

"They are paid by the community and should be held to account by the community.

"If they don't do their job on behalf of the community, the chief officers of police, housing, environmental health or the courts should simply get rid of them."

Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "To the police, housing officers, local authorities - we've listened, we've given you the powers and it's time you used them."

Sunderland was named among a number of trailblazing councils across the country, which will receive £100,000 a year to help address problems caused by nuisance neighbours.

A Nuisance Neighbour Panel will be set up in the city to target at least 50 problem households.

Harry Trueman, Sunderland City Council cabinet member for housing, said: "This is about reclaiming our neighbourhoods for the vast majority of decent, law abiding people."

Measures will also be stepped up to tackle begging in Brighton, Bristol and Leeds, and Westminster and Camden in the capital.

The action plan will also tackle scruffy neighbourhoods, with ten areas to receive a "100 days clean-up" involving removing abandoned cars or graffiti.

A national database will be set up to identify each graffiti artist by the nickname or pseudonym they use in their artwork.

A total of 23 crime and disorder partnerships in the North-East will each receive £60,000 over two years to spend on anti-social behaviour measures.

Many of these aims have already been realised by former policeman and Middlesbrough Mayor Ray Mallon.

Mr Mallon has cut the number of beggars in the town from 24 to one since launching the Raising Hope Initiative last October.

Burglary is down by 40 per cent, car crime by 36 per cent, while aggressive begging and instances of anti-social behaviour have been cut after the introduction of the street warden scheme and improved security camera coverage.

Shadow Home Secretary Oliver Letwin said: "While we welcome the aims behind the announcement, there are serious questions about whether it is just another headline-grabbing initiative, or whether it will it bring lasting improvements."

Rick Kelly, who helps run a disco and youth club on the Sunnybrow estate, near Crook, County Durham, said more needed to be done to engage youngsters in their communities.

He said: "If you can get kids involved in something three nights a week they are not going to be getting bored standing on the streets and hanging around in bus shelters.

"Then you cut down on a lot of the petty vandalism and crime. A lot of kids want to take pride in where they live, but there is nothing for them to have a stake in."