Gas safety checks in Haringey hit 100 per cent

Thursday 27 August 2009

Every council tenant in Haringey has one thing in common: they live in a home that has a certified safe gas supply.

By law, the gas supply pipes and gas boiler in each tenanted home must be inspected by the landlord once a year. Only if these are found to be safe and up to standard is a gas safety certificate (CP12) issued. Homes for Haringey manages this process on behalf of Haringey Council.

On Tuesday 25 August, Homes for Haringey’s gas contractors managed to get access to the one remaining property that would enable them to hit the government-set target of 100 per cent of homes with a valid gas safety certificate for the first time. And the intention is to keep it there.

Tenants have played an enormous part in this achievement. Most are aware of the importance of the annual gas safety check and have co-operated fully and kept their appointments.

To get in to the few homes to which repeated requests for access had been ignored or denied, Homes for Haringey applied to the court for warrants to force entry. In these cases, after the warrant was granted, tenants were informed of when the engineer would call and if they still refused access, Council officials enforced the warrant.

Gowan Turnbull, Mechanical Engineering Manager, Homes for Haringey, said: “We use warrants only as a last resort when repeated attempts to get access to a home have failed. Most tenants know it makes sense to let the engineer in to their home to do the free annual gas safety check. We cannot let the few people who do not let us do our job put themselves and their neighbours at risk.”

Since the first warrants were issued just over a year ago, the percentage of gas safety certificates issued has increased steadily.

Paul Bridge, Chief Executive, said: “This is fantastic news. We’ve been hovering just below the 100 per cent mark for some months and have now achieved our target through good joint working between Homes for Haringey, residents, gas contractors and Haringey Council. Keeping the figure at 100 percent will be an ongoing challenge but I believe we have the processes in place to maintain this excellent performance.”

[ends]

Note to editors

• Gas safety regulations require all landlords to carry out an annual safety check on every property they own.
• Homes for Haringey manages the gas safety process for properties owned by Haringey Council.
• 15,901 properties are inspected every year.
• Home for Haringey employs two gas contractors: Oakray and Kinetics.
• Homes for Haringey is the Arms Length Management Organisation managing Haringey Council’s housing stock since April 2006.
• Homes for Haringey is responsible for:
• Meeting the Decent Home Standard
• Services to approx 21,000 council owned properties: 16,500 tenanted and 4,500 leasehold
• Tenancy and estate management
• Housing management of supported housing
• Rent collection and arrears management
• Repairs and maintenance
• Leasehold management
• Resident involvement

To talk to someone about this news item, please contact us:

Email:communications@homesforharingey.org

Return to Latest News or the News Archive