Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre said: "Hell is other people". He may have been overstating the case, in his gloomy French way; but he was certainly on to something.

The right people can sometimes make our lives heavenly, but the wrong ones can make them hellish. Especially when you are forced to live next door to them.

Any council tenants in York who have ever had to live next door to loutish, thuggish neighbours who make their lives a misery with threats, noise and anti-social behaviour will welcome the news that, in future, new tenants will be put on "probation" for a year before their tenancy becomes permanent.

The torment imposed by neighbours from hell can go on for years. It can involve bullying, threats, drunkenness, violence and even blatant criminality such as drug dealing; and it can cause illness, stress and even drive people from their homes.

Perhaps worst of all is the feeling of helplessness. Evicting anti-social tenants from council homes has never been easy. Complainants have to report them to the council, then keep detailed records of everything they do or say for weeks or months to help the council build a strong enough case for eviction - often only to have the application rejected in court.

The new introductory tenancies, to be brought in from September should make it easier in future to identify and get rid of problem tenants early. New tenants will be monitored for 12 months - and at the end of that time their temporary tenancy will only be made permanent if their behaviour is deemed "acceptable".

Nobody would pretend this is a final answer to the problem. For a start, the new measure will not apply to existing tenants - so if you already live next door to someone who is making your life a misery, this won't help at all. Also, it applies only to council tenants - so won't do anything for private tenants or home-owners who have the ill-luck to live next door to someone who makes their life intolerable.

There must also be a suspicion that the council will be more eager to use the system to crack down on those who fail to pay their rent on time, rather than those who make their neighbours' lives a misery.

For council tenants, however, this does at least seem a step forward in tackling the problem of neighbours from hell.

But there is a danger. What the system presumably means is that new council tenants will live for the first 12 months of their tenancy under scrutiny. Unless the monitoring of their tenancy is done sensitively, there is the risk of unwarranted intrusion into the lives of decent, ordinary people. And there is also clear potential for abuse of the system by neighbours who, for whatever reason, take a dislike to the newcomers.

Most worrying of all, however, is the message this appears to send about the council's attitude to its tenants. It implies a lack of trust. For 12 months, council tenants will be forced to live under a system of monitoring that others would simply not be prepared to tolerate - simply because they are council tenants. This could be seen as a form of discrimination.

It will be up to the council to demonstrate that these fears are groundless, and to ensure that the rights to privacy of the vast majority of decent, ordinary council tenants are protected.

And it must show that the new scheme really is being introduced to benefit tenants, and not for its own rent-collecting convenience.

Updated: 10:49 Thursday, August 21, 2003