City West’s Gas Team are taking action to achieve a 100% target to ensure all homes are gas safe.
City West are legally obliged to carry out annual gas checks in all of our properties, which are free of charge to our customers. However, despite the importance and potential to save lives, some of our customers refuse us access to carry out these checks.
Working with Salford City Council, we’re now securing warrants through The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS). The HHSRS is designed to help local authorities identify and protect against risks and hazards to health and safety in individual properties. This includes compliance with gas safety. City West can gain a warrant allowing forced entry to a property as a last resort if customers do not allow access. City West’s Gas Team have a number of procedures in place before taking this last resort. These include:
· Flexible appointments i.e. after 17-00 Mon to Fri and appointments on a Saturday
· Texting customers to remind them the team are coming
· A £50 draw for allowing access to complete a service
· All engineers phone the gas team if there is a no access and the gas team will ring the customer to find out why there is a failed appointment
· A designated engineer calls at the hard to access properties
· Installation of heating programmers with interrupters on to remind customers that a service is due
· Closer working between the Gas team, housing offices and call centre - All out of date services are highlighted and if a call is logged by the call centre a gas service is also ordered for the same time
As a result of the procedures in place, 99.84% of City West properties now have an up to date gas service.
Our aim is to ensure that 100% of our properties are safe. The safety of customers is our top priority and we will continue to take what ever action to achieve this. The outstanding properties without an up to date service have been out of date for less than 3 months and are a priority for City West.
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