Poor quality housing layout and design, most prevalent in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, has often had a real and devastating impact upon the people that live within them.
Many developments have been blighted by years of criminal behaviour which has been aided/supported by poor design and doors and windows that were not fit for purpose.
However, when crime prevention is considered from the outset of a build, the benefits are huge, and this is especially the case when it comes to those built to Secured by Design standards.
Secured by Design (SBD) is the official police security initiative that works to improve the security of all buildings and their immediate surroundings to provide safe places to live, work, shop and visit.
It is currently celebrating its 35th year of delivering outstanding crime prevention benefits across a wide range of development types including residential, educational, commercial and mixed use.
The effectiveness of SBD has been academically evaluated several times and each time the findings have been dramatic.
In one study of 3000 local authority homes in Scotland, burglary reductions figures were seen at 91% when compared to near neighbouring developments that were not accredited to the SBD standard.
SBD is delivered by all UK police forces with approximately 200 Designing Out Crime Officers (DOCOs) employed to work with strategic partners, such a local planning authorities and others, to design out crime when designs are still at the drawing board stage.
How much cheaper and effective it is at that point to draw new lines on future planning proposals than it is to see a flawed development built and then a need to introduce expensive and less impactful intervention measures later to counter criminal behaviour who take advantage of the vulnerabilities they find there.
Sadly, this has often been the case in the past as the Home Office’s Safer Streets Fund, now in its fifth iteration, confirms.
The Safer Streets Fund (worth £50 million pounds in 2024-25) sees Police and Crime Commissioners submit applications for funding that if granted is then used to provide necessary measures to thwart the criminal who is active within the built environment.
This is often used to purchase products required to augment the security of properties, or improve lighting and CCTV to generate a feeling of improved safety.
With a little forethought and expertise back at that all important drawing board stage - and consideration given to the quality of things such as doors and windows that are being fitted to a property - it is highly likely that the future need for such measures could have been designed out at zero cost.
It is true that crime is an ever moving target.
Keeping pace with new offending behaviour is not easy, but with its close ties to policing, SBD has always been in a good position to provide an appropriate response and adapt to the challenges society faces as the criminals learn their trade and become more skilled.
The advantages of building in accordance with SBD is not purely limited to reducing crime.
A number of academic studies has also found that there are other, and perhaps less obvious benefits too.
Here’s just a few to be aware of:
- Reduced anti-social behaviour (a huge concern to many individuals and communities)
- Reduced criminal justice costs (fewer crimes mean less victims of crime but also less offenders to deal with)
- Increased social cohesion (crime drives communities into a lock-down mentality where everyone is a suspect, this hinders social interaction)
- Reduced rehousing (SBD estates, because of dramatically reduced crime levels, become places where people want to live, rather than move away from, as is often the case in the rented sector)
- Better general health (crime and the fear of crime impact our wellbeing, it can lead to a need for medical intervention with missed days from work or school for example)
- Improved educational achievement (ultimately those missed days at school have an impact)
- Less carbon (crime generates carbon as can be shown if we think of all those journeys made by police to the scene of a crime and add to this the environmental cost of manufacturing new items to replace those that have been stolen or damages during the crime. In circumstances where a prosecution is made there is also the carbon generated by the judicial process which can be huge)
- Reduced maintenance (as an example, less broken doors or windows due to less crime means less calls for service. It should also be noted that enhanced security products such as doors and windows utilised within a SBD development, also carry independent endorsement in terms of their fitness for purpose)
- Reduced insurance premiums (again, fewer crimes means few claims and this equals smaller premiums)
- Increased property values (areas become places where people want to reside, own, invest in, rather than leave. For example, increased demand for properties always inflates prices)
- Increased economic output (crime in the UK is a serious fiscal drag on the economy)
This huge building programme is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss – get it right and we can increase the wellbeing and sustainability of our communities for generations to come.
Low Cost and Free Publicity - Your company can easily benefit from some publicity like the posts above for a contribution towards our layout costs (£75 to £95 plus VAT), payable in advance or you can receive the service absolutely free of charge if you advertise (see below).
We post articles up to twice a day and never delete them - we only archive them each year so that they continue to remain visible to search engines.
To have your story published - just send us your news item, logo and image(s) and we will review the material, make any necessary changes to the wording / wordcount and then advise you when it will be published.
If you are a regular advertiser in our printed and online publications, placing series bookings for adverts or subscribing to our VIP Packages, you will qualify for a specific number of free postings on this blog while you continue to advertise with us. See our media pack for more details.
Also, if you purchase one of our Online and Print Combo packages, Featured Articles or Advertorial packages shown in our media pack, posting on this blog is included in the price.
For details and rates for all of our advertising options in print and online, download our media pack contact us or visit our website.
Door Industry Journal is a trading style of Avalon Innovations LLP - Company No. OC364751
No comments:
Post a Comment