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Paradigm rapped over gas safety failure
A housing association led by the former head of the social housing regulator has been criticised by the Homes and Communities Agency for gas safety failures.
The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) today said 14,000-home Paradigm had breached the Home Standard, due to its failure to undertake checks on properties every year as required by law.
In a regulatory notice, the regulator said while a small number of homes had been affected, the inspections were overdue “for significant periods of time”.
Matthew Bailes, the chief executive of Paradigm, was the director of regulation at the HCA until last year. He took over as chief executive of Paradigm last August.
Paradigm got in touch with the HCA to disclose that it had identified a low number of properties without valid gas safety certificates following an internal data exercise. It is not clear precisely when Paradigm informed the regulator.
The HCA said the breach “exposed a number of tenants to the potential of serious harm for lengthy periods”.
“Paradigm has provided assurance that it has completed the outstanding gas safety checks. The regulator will therefore not take further action in this instance, as it has assurance that tenants are not at ongoing risk of serious harm,” the HCA said.
“We are also assured that Paradigm has put in place a programme to rectify the underlying causes of this failure and prevent them arising again.”
Mr Bailes said: “Gas safety checks have since been carried out and all properties were found to be safe. As soon as the problem came to light, we voluntarily alerted the HCA, and now have rigorous procedures in place to ensure this cannot happen again.
“The safety of our customers is of utmost importance to us and we take our responsibilities as a landlord very seriously. Residents can be reassured that we are now 100% gas-compliant.”
Symphony Group, which is led by another former director at the regulator Bronwen Rapley, received a non-compliant G3 rating over health and safety concerns earlier this year.
In a separate judgement today, the HCA also downgraded Derwent Housing’s governance and viability rating to a non-compliant G3 and V3. Inside Housing will have more on this story soon.
