Behind the scenes as The Independent’s refuge for domestic abuse survivors is being built

The team building The Independent and Refuge’s first new home for domestic abuse survivors has taken readers behind the scenes to look at how the sanctuary is being built.

Thanks to readers’ generous donations to our Brick by Brick campaign, now in excess of £500,000, construction is well underway on a house for people fleeing the horror of domestic abuse.

Plans to build a second safe home are now also in motion after our campaign – backed by an array of high-profile supporters including the Queen, Sir Keir Starmer and Dame Helen Mirren – far surpassed its initial £300,000 target.

Be a brick, buy a brick and donate here or text BRICK to 70560 to donate £15

Speaking as the first new home starts to take shape, group director of house builders Persimmon Anthony Vigor said the company was “really pleased and proud” to be constructing the refuge for the cause.

“We recognise the importance of home to people, and building homes in communities, and so given the need for homes like the one that we’re building here as part of Brick by Brick, we thought that this feels like exactly the type of brilliant initiative that we should support as well,” he said.

He said the actual construction of the house will take around six months, adding: “You obviously want to make sure you’re building a high-quality home, and we have tens of workers who work on any home at any one time.

“[It involves] lots of skilled trade from the start – from the slab right through to handing the keys over. We organise the construction from top to bottom, we even in some places produce our own bricks and tiles, and manufacture our own timber frame as well.”

He added: “People should get behind this because it’s such a great campaign. Government support really only starts once people are in a home, and therefore there is a real need for more homes.”

The company’s philanthropic arm, the Persimmon Charitable Foundation, recently donated £25,000 towards the appeal as well as leading the project’s construction.

Noting that colleagues across the business “have been really touched by” the campaign’s aims, Mr Vigor said the home’s eventual completion will be a real “moment of pride for us all”.

The campaign has helped to launch a national conversation about domestic abuse, with high-profile figures such as Victoria Derbyshire, Rylan Clark, Cherie Blair and Olivia Colman all backing its aims.

An average of one woman is killed by a partner or ex-partner every five days in England and Wales, with Refuge receiving a call for assistance every two minutes.

The house will have the latest security measures including a fire-proof letter box, CCTV, and enhanced locking features on windows and doors. It will be linked to the local police force to ensure officers can get there quickly in the rare instance a woman’s abuser discovers where she is living.

Standing among the foundations and rising walls of the new sanctuary, Refuge chair Hetti Barkworth-Nanton previously described its construction as “quite simply life-changing”.

“To know that this is happening and know that people are really behind it and giving us the support is just incredible,” she added. “It is like the phoenix coming out of the ground, and it typifies what our survivors do to reach out for help. We will continue to build hope, we will never give up.”

Please donate now to the Brick by Brick campaign, launched by The Independent and charity Refuge, to help raise another £300,000 to build a second safe space for women where they can escape domestic abuse, rebuild their lives and make a new future. Text BRICK to 70560 to donate £15.