THE Chancellor used his Budget on International Women’s Day to pledge millions of pounds towards the fight against domestic violence.

Organisations working to tackle the scourge of domestic abuse will see an additional £20m from the government, taking the total amount made available during this parliament to more than £100m.

Swindon Women’s Aid director, Olwen Kelly, said the extra money was good news, but that it had to be spent in the right way.

“The additional money will be great,” she said. “But as with anything, the devil will be in the detail.

“From the point of view of Swindon Women’s Aid, what we hope is that the money will be directed into frontline services.

“We need the specialist services in place so that these women, children, and men, have got somewhere to go when they’re fleeing homes from violence.

“Or help to stay in their own homes if that’s what they want to do.”

The alternative to funding frontline services would be giving the additional money to more outreach and education based programmes.

“There’s a need for both,” added Olwen. “But due to changes in the way these services are commissioned we’ve seen these specialist services close down and funding cut.

“Domestic abuse doesn’t happen from Monday to Friday, it’s not nine to five, it’s not good enough to ask people to go through a call centre.

“Two women a week are murdered in this country as a result of domestic violence, 750,000 children live in households where domestic abuse happens.

“We know it takes the average victim up to 35 times to report – we have one chance to get them in, get them out of the situation they’re in.

“Although I really welcome the fact that £20m has been invested, government needs to really work closely with specialist providers, and victims, to make sure it is spent in the right way."

The additional funding was welcomed by South Swindon MP Robert Buckland, who visited the Swindon women’s refuge with the Criminal Justice Minister last year.

He said: “I am extremely pleased that more funding has been allocated, which means that we will have invested £100m to combat domestic abuse over the last few years.

“The Prime Minister is personally dedicated to reducing domestic abuse and she has visited the Swindon refuge when she was Home Secretary so understands the great work they do.”