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Association signs up to Government's 'Respect' Standard

DAMHA has signed up to the Respect Standard for Housing Management, part of the government’s Respect Action Plan.

The government’s Respect campaign aims to ensure that local agencies tackle unacceptable behaviour and its causes to improve quality of life for residents – particularly those in the most disadvantaged communities.

The Respect Standard for Housing Management forms part of this drive and is aimed at social landlords. Although voluntary, the government is keen for as many landlords as possible to sign up.

The Standard is built around six core commitments:

  • Accountability, leadership, and commitment
  • Empowering and reassuring residents
  • Prevention and early intervention
  • Tailored services for residents and provision of support for victims and witnesses
  • Protecting communities through swift enforcement
  • Support to tackle the causes of anti-social behaviour

Before signing up to the standard we held Area Meetings with our residents to discuss the problems they have with anti social behaviour. We wanted to make sure that our policies and responses meet the needs of our residents. Whilst we were pleased to see that most of our residents do not have major problems with anti social behaviour, it was very clear from these discussions that the majority of problems experienced by our residents are caused by residents of the wider communities, rather than DAMHA residents.

Our residents therefore see our main role as acting on their behalf to involve other agencies, such as the police and other landlords to prevent and stop incidents of anti social behaviour. We have amended our Anti Social Behaviour Policy to recognise this.

Gill Bramfitt, Senior Housing Officer, said, “We are committed to helping our residents have a good quality of life and would urge anyone who is experiencing problems with anti - social behaviour to contact us”.

If you would like more information about the Respect Standard for Housing Management, or a copy of our Anti Social Behaviour Policy please contact our Customer Service Team on Freephone 0800 0432642.