Decision

Regulatory Notice: Sheffield City Council (25 January 2023)

Published 25 January 2023

Applies to England

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sheffield-city-council/regulatory-notice-sheffield-city-council-25-january-2023

RSH Regulatory Notice

  • Provider: Sheffield City Council
  • Regulatory code: 00CG
  • Publication date: 25 January 2023
  • Reason for publication: Consumer Standards
  • Regulatory route: Reactive Engagement

Other providers included in the judgement

None

Regulatory Findings

The regulator has concluded that:

a) Sheffield City Council (the Council) has breached the Home Standard; and

b) As a consequence of this breach, there was the potential for serious detriment to the Council’s tenants.

The regulator will work with the Council as it seeks to remedy this breach and will continue to consider what further action may need to be taken.

The issue

The Council made a self-referral to the regulator in November 2022 as it had identified a failure to meet statutory health and safety requirements in relation to gas safety. At the time of the referral, the Council told us that more than 800 gas safety checks were overdue.

Our investigation

As a registered provider, the Council is required to comply with the consumer standards, including the Home Standard. The Home Standard requires registered providers to meet all applicable statutory requirements that provide for the health and safety of tenants in their homes.

In respect of gas safety, the Council has a statutory duty[footnote 1] to complete gas safety inspections annually for all relevant properties with inspections carried out by a registered engineer. Our investigation found that hundreds of properties had not received their annual gas safety inspection. A significant number of the gas safety inspections were overdue by more than 12 months, with some dating back several years.

The regulator concluded that the Council did not have effective controls in place to enable it to meet its statutory health and safety responsibilities in relation to gas safety.

Complying with statutory health and safety requirements is a fundamental responsibility of all registered providers because of the potential for serious harm to tenants. The Council has demonstrated to the regulator that it now understands its responsibilities and is completing the work it needs to undertake to ensure the required statutory checks are completed. However, taking into account the seriousness of the issues and the number of tenants potentially affected, the regulator has concluded that the Council has breached the Home Standard and that there was a risk of serious detriment to tenants during this period.

Our engagement

The Council is currently addressing the issue and has put in place a programme to reduce the number of overdue gas inspections. We will therefore not take enforcement action at this stage, as we have assurance that the breach of the standard is being remedied. The regulator will work with the Council as it continues to address the issues that led to this situation, including ongoing monitoring of how it delivers its programme.

Section 198A of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (as amended) states that the regulator’s regulatory and enforcement powers may be used if a registered provider has failed to meet a consumer standard. In order to use regulatory or enforcement powers, as well as the failure to meet the standard, there should also be reasonable grounds to suspect that the failure has resulted in a serious detriment to the provider’s tenants (or potential tenants) or that there is a significant risk that, if no action is taken by the regulator, the failure will result in a serious detriment to the provider’s tenants (or potential tenants).

About our Regulatory Notices

Regulatory notices are issued in response to an event of regulatory importance (for example, a finding of a breach of the Rent Standard or of a consumer standard that has or may cause serious harm) that, in accordance with its obligation to be transparent, the regulator wishes to make public. More detail about Regulatory notices is set out in Regulating the Standards.

  1. Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 ↩

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