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Midlands council had 622 gas certificates outstanding
A council in the Midlands had 622 gas safety certificates out of date for a short period this summer, council papers have revealed.
Newark & Sherwood District Council said the issues came to its attention in July and that all its homes were checked and serviced by 15 August.
The council manages its 5,400 council homes through an ALMO, Newark and Sherwood Homes (NS Homes), but is already set to wind the company up and bring its housing services in-house.
A report seen by the Conservative council’s homes and communities committee on Monday revealed there have been two instances of gas servicing failures this year.
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NS Homes reported to the council in April that 38 homes did not have valid gas safety certificates after a data error meant their details were not passed to its gas contractor.
Monday’s report said that “additional processes were immediately put in place to expedite the completion of the gas service for the properties”.
Then in June, internal checks by NS Homes found “that it had not received certificates for properties expected to have certificates issued during April and May 2019”, with “some 622 properties” affected.
The council said remedial repairs had been needed on 20 of the homes implicated in the two incidents.
As well as completing the repairs and certificates, NS Homes has carried out an investigation into the problems and put in place “an immediate and fully resourced action plan”.
Both the council and ALMO “viewed these failures as serious and concerning”, according to the report.
Newark and Sherwood Council self-referred to the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) in June, with the regulator informing the council in August that it had considered the referral and found no breach of its consumer standards.
Last month, the RSH hit four Kent councils with regulatory notices over safety issues identified within their ALMO, East Kent Housing, which first emerged when it admitted that hundreds of gas safety certificates were out of date.
Newark and Sherwood Council also reported its issues to the Health and Safety Executive in June but said it has not received any further contact.
The ALMO has delivered gas services through Sure Group since 2015, with the contract expiring recently. A new contractor has now been appointed following a tender process.
A report which went before the council’s policy and finance committee last week said a resident consultation with a 20.8% response rate found that 80.4% were in favour of the council’s proposal to bring its housing services in-house.
NS Homes’ contract is now set to be terminated, with housing management moving back to the council no later than 1 April 2020.
Joint statement from Newark and Sherwood District Council and Newark and Sherwood Homes
“The safety of our tenants is always of prime importance to us. As soon as Newark and Sherwood Homes became aware of the missed gas services, it took urgent and comprehensive action to ensure staff and contractors worked to remedy the situation.
“As part of this, the company notified Newark and Sherwood District Council and external bodies of the circumstances and actions to be taken and has been completely open and transparent in reporting the matter to the council which in turn has self-reported to The Regulator of Social Housing.
“Remedial action has included enhanced management processes while securing additional contractors. The company recognises this was a serious matter and has extensively reviewed its processes and procedures, including its use of external experts, to proactively identify improvements, learning and to put in place new measures to avoid this happening again.
“All outstanding work was completed by mid-August. We apologise to those tenants affected and thank them for their patience and cooperation while the company arranged and carried out the works in such a short timescale. Robust measures have since been put in place.
“Newark and Sherwood District Council is very supportive of the approach taken by Newark and Sherwood Homes to quickly identify the issues and put into action an immediate and fully resourced plan to rectify them. The Regulator of Social Housing determined there was no breach of consumer standards and would be taking no further action.”
