Incidents of abusive behaviour towards Housing Executive (NIHE) staff have more than doubled over the past five years, with reports recorded in nine different office locations this year alone to date.

It comes as more than £3.3m was spent on security staffing at the organisation’s office locations across the north between 2019 and 2024 – with almost half going towards the Belfast city centre office.

In 2024, there were 48 incidents involving members of the public abusing staff, compared to just 20 in 2019.

Read more: Almost half of £3.3m Housing Executive security bill spent on Belfast city centre office

The latest figures, obtained by The Irish News via Freedom of Information request, showed that there have been 213 incidents since 2019, with the annual figure increasing by 140% since then.

The greatest year-on-year jump was noted in 2023, when reported incidents doubled from 22 to 44.

In 2025, abusive behaviour incidents have been noted in nine different office locations so far – the highest number of different sites reporting incidents over the past six years.

There were incidents in eight different offices last year and six the previous year.

Overall, around one third of abuse incidents involving members of the public happened in Housing Executive office locations while the remaining 66% of reports took place in non-office sites.

These can include incidents which have taken place during home visits.

Since 2019, only two physical incidents have been reported in office locations, with one incident in Belfast’s Gardiner Street Depot in 2020 and another in the Bangor District Office in 2022.

However, there have been 14 physical reports noted in non-office locations for the same period.

The Housing Executive said that it was “important to note” that the increase in incidents can partly explained by their “focus organisationally over recent years on abusive behaviour through awareness, training and emphasising the need to record and report such behaviour”.

In its latest annual report, NIHE stated that its senior management team made “a number of strategic decisions in relation to the management of abusive behaviours towards staff”.

“During the year we created a new Safety & Security Manager post within Health & Safety Services, in addition to offering access to specialist external security services and the establishment of a Staff and Safety Security Forum,” the report said.

Among the Health & Safety Services team’s plan for the current financial year is to implement an organisational action plan to “address abusive behaviours towards staff”.

NIHE has been contacted for comment.