BOLTON at Home is forging stronger links with the police in a bid to combat crime and anti-social behaviour on its estates.

The social landlord has joined forces with police, which will see it sharing intelligence about problem residents.

The agreement, called the Crime Concordat, has been signed by landlords across Greater Manchester, and is the first declaration of its kind to cover an entire UK city region.

As part of the agreement the social housing provider says it will also develop business plans with the police and take joint action to make communities safer. Jon Lord, chief executive of Bolton at Home, said he believes the concordat could become a national template for other areas in the country.

He added: “Working closely with the police is not something new to the social housing sector.

“Across Greater Manchester there are many fantastic examples of this approach that have helped to deliver real and lasting improvements for many communities. We have a particularly close relationship with the police in Bolton and work well together. What this agreement does is establish a platform that will enable us to take all these great individual examples and share them across the region.”

The Crime Concordat was signed by representatives of the social housing sector, police and police and crime commissioner, Tony Lloyd, at a ceremony at Wigan Youth Zone.

Mr Lloyd said: “This agreement sets in place how the organisations will work together with those communities to make the best use of this information and in turn make those communities safer places to live.”