An improved approach to regeneration featuring Sheffield City Council, the community, partners and investors will see work towards physical, social and economic improvements take place across Gleadless Valley.
New approach to electrical testing will increase tenants’ safety in their homes
A new approach to carrying out both electrical testing and condition reports in tenants’ properties will ensure those who live in council properties are even safer moving forward.
The new approach will ensure everyone who lives in a Sheffield City Council property will receive an electrical safety test every five years, as well as a condition check of their home.
This was unanimously agreed at today’s (Wednesday September 25th) Strategy and Resources Committee at Sheffield Town Hall.
In Sheffield, people are at the heart of what we do, and we are continually looking at ways to improve services for tenants. This includes being committed to keeping tenants’ homes in a good and safe condition.
We will of course inform all of our tenants when we are due to attend their property. It is vital tenants work with us to allow the inspections to take place and ensure that their property is safe for them and their families.
We don’t want tenants to worry about these visits, and we want to ensure people our staff will cater for the vulnerabilities of any resident which might make these essential safety visits to their home more challenging for them.
The increased frequency of testing keeps the Council in line with the Safety and Quality Standard in the new Consumer Standards set for all local authority and housing association landlords which were put in place in April this year (2024).
The Council owns more than 38,500 social housing properties, and these have been subject to a 10-year inspection cycle up to now. Under the new regulations, there will be 15,502 properties that fall outside of the five-year cycle window, as well as 6,436 properties that will fall outside that window by the end of 2024.
This is part of the ongoing journey of improvement the Council’s Housing and Repairs Services are undertaking in order to comply with current regulations. Dialogue with the Regulator of Social Housing has taken place to outline our plans to ensure we quickly achieve compliance in regards to our electrical testing.
The Housing Service is part of an ambitious Council-wide transformation programme which is called Future Sheffield. This work is committed to better service delivery for residents, and will help us become the organisation we need to be, providing consistent, modern, and high-quality services that Sheffield deserves.
The next steps are for the Council to seek two external contractors to carry out both sets of checks due to a lack of capacity to carry out such a large number of checks through our own Housing and Repairs teams.
Therefore, the committee today approved that £19,668,000, will be spent over the next five-and-a-half years to ensure all these checks take place to keep our tenants safe. As well as covering the cost of carrying out the safety checks, this will also cover the cost of any new electrical equipment that has to be installed to future proof properties.
Cllr Tom Hunt, Leader of Sheffield City Council and Chair of the Strategy and Resources Committee, said:
“Sheffield City Council recognises that everybody deserves a safe, secure and affordable place to call home. Good quality homes are fundamental for enabling everyone to live happy, healthy lives.
“Part of that is ensuring homes are kept up to standard in terms of electrical safety. The Regulator of Social Housing has brought in welcome regulatory standards for all social properties this year, which we welcome. This work will help us comply with those regulations which are there to keep social housing tenants nationwide safe in their homes.”
