Two housing associations have been found to have breached a regulatory standard after they failed to carry out safety checks on a number of their properties.
The Regulator of Social Housing concluded Vivid and Raven Housing Trust had breached its Home Standard, but both associations have kept their top governance rating despite the issues uncovered.
In 2015 Raven Housing Trust found out that electrical safety checks had not been completed on a number of its properties, some of which were overdue for several years, but failed to inform the regulator at the time.
The regulator said the overdue work that had not been completed was considered to be “potentially dangerous” and required “urgent remedial action”.
Raven only recently reported the electrical safety issue to the regulator alongside a second issue it had uncovered relating to water safety. Hundreds of its properties were not subject to water testing to check for signs of Legionella in water tanks because of issues with a newly procured contract, potentially affecting a large number of tenants.
Despite Raven failing to inform the regulator of the electrical safety issue back in 2015, it has kept its top rating for governance. The regulator said the new leadership at the association had “overseen a comprehensive programme to rectify the underlying causes of these failures and prevent them arising again”.
A spokesperson for Raven said: “The safety of our residents throughout this process has been our number-one priority. We have co-operated fully with the regulator and have put in place new health and safety systems and a new management team as well as fully auditing and improving our processes to ensure that our systems are as robust as possible going forward.”
They added: “It should be noted that the regulator has kept our governance rating at the highest level (G1) because it recognises that the leadership team has comprehensively addressed the causes of these breaches.
“Raven Housing Trust remains committed to the highest standard of service to its residents and will continue to work to ensure that that they are housed safely and securely.”
Vivid, which manages 30,000 homes, discovered a number of its properties were without gas safety certificates for several years, the regulator revealed.
During the merger of First Wessex and Sentinel Housing Association to form Vivid last year the organisation reported to the regulator that a “low number” of homes had been found without valid gas safety certificates.
Most of these properties had been without certificates for a “considerable period of time” the regulator said, and some for a number of years.
The outstanding gas safety checks have now been completed and Vivid has carried out a review which found that the issue arose because of inaccurate data about the presence of gas appliances in some of its properties. It has developed an action plan to stop this happening in the future.
The regulator concluded Vivid failed to meet its Home Standard and there was the potential for “serious detriment” to its tenants as a result.
No further action will be taken because Vivid has remedied the situation, the regulator said. Vivid has kept its G1 rating for its governance.
Vivid has been approached for comment.
