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Government urged to extend gas safety certificates as associations fear for workers’ safety
Housing associations are pushing the government to extend gas safety certificates from 12 to 18 months in order to protect their workers from the spread of coronavirus.
Inside Housing has heard from associations that are continuing to carry out statutory gas safety checks while repairs work is stripped back to emergencies only. The majority have raised fears for the safety of their staff members working under the current guidance.
Ian Johnson, director of property services at Karbon Homes, told Inside Housing: “We would welcome the governing bodies to think again about extending certification from 12 to 18 months for gas servicing in the social housing sector.
“We recognise that this is a national and global crisis, but we don’t want colleagues putting themselves unnecessarily at risk, especially when we have got modern systems and boilers in place, many of which already have in-built fail safes.”
Mr Johnson said a review of the current system is needed, particularly given that the government has announced a similar six-month extension to MOT testing for cars.
Karbon had paused gas servicing on Tuesday last week, following prime minister Boris Johnson’s announcement of a lockdown, but decided on Thursday to resume servicing works this week after guidance from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
The comments come as new government guidance published at the weekend told landlords to “make every effort” to abide by existing gas safety regulations.
Claire Heyes, chief executive of Corgi Technical Services, whose members include around 800 housing associations and local authorities, told Inside Housing: “I’m in discussion with all of our members that are looking after gas safety.
“They are under a huge amount of pressure, so we are in consultation with the HSE trying to get them to look at potentially extending the 12-month deadline but that is not something they are going to do lightly.”
Ms Heyes added: “Providers must notify the regulator if they think they are going to become non-compliant, and I think nearly all will become non-compliant in the coming weeks.
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“So we have got to join up the HSE requirements with the regulator’s requirements and make sure we satisfy them both.”
Neal Ackcral, chief property officer at Hyde, said the association is also speaking to the HSE about the current rules.
He said Hyde are talking to the HSE and regulatory bodies all the time to make sure that gas servicing is still seen as essential work.
Mr Ackcral said: “One or two operatives have expressed their concerns to us, which is totally understandable.
“The problem is that a lot of other companies have stopped doing gas servicing work and this information has gotten back to our engineers, so it’s quite unsettling for them.”
Keith Simpson, chair of the Direct Works Forum, which represents associations and councils that deliver their own repairs and maintenance works, said: “Because the information is still not clear from the HSE, government, the regulator, it’s all a bit ambivalent. Servicing a gas boiler is of secondary importance behind safety of employees – so my advice is stop it.”
Guidance from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), published on Saturday, said that landlords should “make every effort” to abide by existing gas safety regulations, and this has been relayed to affected businesses via the Gas Safe Register.
“If you are not able to gain access to the property due to restrictions in place to tackle COVID-19, or are not able to engage a contractor to carry out the necessary work, we recommend you document your attempts to do so and all correspondence with your tenants,” the guidance said.
The document does not indicate that there will be any extension to gas safety certificates and said with that landlords should only access properties for “serious and urgent repairs”.
MHCLG, Gas Safe Register and the HSE have all been contacted for comment.
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