We have a zero-tolerance policy towards abusive, discriminatory, and violent behaviour and our dedicated Community Safety team work hard to keep our customers and their communities safe.
We’re accredited for our domestic abuse services by the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance and by HouseMark for our anti-social behaviour services. Our team help residents with anti-social behaviour cases and domestic abuse, often working in partnership to take preventative action and put appropriate support in place.
We want everyone to be safe in their home, but with the introduction of lockdown in March 2020 has come a severe rise in domestic abuse. Not every home is a safe sanctuary, but we want to help make it a reality.
Year in numbers:
- A three-fold increase leading to 444 domestic abuse cases
- 708 anti-social behaviour cases
- 700 new cases of noise nuisance, serious harassment and violence
Anti-social behaviour cases are broken down into:
Noise: 263 cases
Harassment and threats: 321
Drug-related: 172
Hate crime: 20
Safer Lives
To protect our customers, we introduced the Domestic Abuse Taskforce during lockdown. The group supported the Government’s You are Not Alone campaign and produced an action plan for tackling domestic abuse. To support customers, we:
- Contacted every customer who had previously reported abuse to check their welfare and safety.
- Provided training to colleagues so they could better identify signs of risk over the phone.
- Supported partner agencies to sign-post customers and offer collaborative support.
- Worked in partnership to create safe homes, sourcing furniture, flooring and materials wherever we could.
- Safely re-homed customers where appropriate.
Domestic abuse can take on many forms, but it’s often defined as any ‘incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are or have been intimate partners or family members’.
We’re committed to taking part in national campaigns and using our platforms to raise awareness. Domestic abuse is complex and not easily defined, but signs can include:
- Being controlled by someone else, often known as coercive control.
- Psychological and emotional abuse, undermining self-esteem or intimidating someone.
- Financial abuse, controlling another person financially.
- Sexual abuse.
- Technical abuse, constantly receiving calls or texts from another person or being harassed by them on social media.
How we can help
We’re here to help customers experiencing domestic abuse. We work with partners, including local police, to help people make their home a safe place to be. Additionally, we work with Independent Domestic Violence Advisors to put an action plan in place to stop the cycle of abuse and put appropriate safeguarding measures in place.
If you’re a resident and would like to speak to our Community Safety team, call us on 0300 123 1 567. A member of the team will be in touch with you within 24 hours. Alternatively, if you’d prefer to speak to someone elsewhere, contact the National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
If you’re in immediate danger, please call 999.
