Tenant Satisfaction Measure 05: Thinking about the condition of the property or building you live in, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you that Great Places provides a home that is safe?
Customer safety is the number one priority for Great Places, whether it’s conducting annual gas safety checks in homes, providing essential fire safety advice or sharing tips on electrics.
Here’s what’s been happening up until March 2023:
We are pleased to be able to report that all our homes are 100% gas safety compliant and we are also meeting all the safety rules for fire, electrics and water.
We are getting ready for the new requirements of the Building Safety Act 2022. This means all high-rise buildings with many homes need to be registered with the Building Safety Regulator by 1 October 2023. Our team is checking our buildings and making sure they’re safe according to the new rules. This work is really important, and we are investing a lot over the next two years.
In the past year, we spent £2.2 million on different things like changing doors in flats and adding smoke and fire detectors in communal areas. We have been working hard to follow detailed checks and make sure our fire safety meets the highest standards.
Since September 2022, we have fitted 4,256 carbon monoxide alarms in rooms with gas appliances, like boilers and fireplaces. We are doing this to follow new safety laws, and these alarms will be checked during the yearly gas inspection.
Chris, a customer at Bowland House says: “I feel quite safe, you have completely sealed all of the service ducts, so that smoke and obnoxious gases can’t travel from flat to flat. And obviously with the cladding on the outside and the insulation, it’s mineral based so it is completely fireproof.”
In the next few months, we are putting even more effort and money into building safety and. We are recruiting more expert colleagues to make sure we keep hitting those high standards.
We are also making sure all our properties at higher risk get detailed checks, including intrusive wall surveys. If needed, we’ll quickly put safety measures in place with help from local fire services. At the same time, we will continue to develop our plans to deliver remediation works in a managed programme.
Over the next year, key areas of focus will continue to be retrofitting, fire safety and building safety.
Demand for our damp inspections increased significantly and from October 2022 to February 2023, we carried out 777 damp and mould checks and put in place solutions to help customers with these issues.
We worked hard to meet customers’ needs and keep homes safe. Some of our long-term plans had to have timescales pushed back so we could handle these immediate challenges.
By October 2023, most of our customer facing colleagues (including neighbourhoods and Independence and Wellbeing teams) will have received specialist training to support customers and effectively identify and report issues of damp, mould and condensation.
14/07/2022
Article by: Damian Beaumont
For those who haven’t had the pleasure of seeing the newly-renovated Bowland House in Blackburn yet, I encourage you to do so. The end product hasn’t come together without a fair amount of energy, resources or determination but it’s been worth it all. The official opening rounded off an amazing journey for customers and colleagues, with […]
15/06/2022
Article by: Damian Beaumont
Former four-time World Superbike champion and King of the Jungle Carl Fogarty was the guest of honour as Great Places' Bowland House in Blackburn was officially unveiled.
23/07/2021
Article by: Damian Beaumont
The Bowland House project in Blackburn is now six months in and works are progressing well. Like with any project of this nature, it has had its ups and downs, but our amazing neighbourhoods team, our contractor Casey and our wonderful Bowland House customers have helped to make everything work. In relation to the works, […]
