The Westminster government has allocated £6m for councils to help them meet their pending legal duty of providing safe accommodation to domestic abuse victims and their children in England.
The obligation is among provisions in the Domestic Abuse Bill currently before Parliament. If passed, the new duty on local authorities will take effect in April.
The extra funding is specifically to help councils train staff and plan for accommodation and support services.
While welcoming the money as an important first step, Ellie Butt, Refuge’s head of policy and public affairs, was quoted by the BBC as saying: “The government has not yet committed funds to back up the legal duty to provide refuge accommodation, and, without this, these new measures simply will not be effective.”
