Electrical Safety in The Social Housing Sector

Electrical safety in social housing has, for a long time, sat in the shadow of gas safety. Everyone knows the annual gas check. Far fewer give the same weight to electrical installations — installations that can harbour serious, hidden faults and show no outward signs of danger whatsoever.

That is beginning to change. New regulations are now coming into force that will require all social housing providers to have electrical installations inspected and tested every five years — and to get a copy of the certificate to tenants within 28 days.

In episode 220 of The Social Housing Round Table, Matt Baird is joined by Martin Simmonds, Head of M&E at a large housing association and Chair of the Electrical Safety Roundtable's Social Housing Subgroup, and Lana Adkin, Communications Officer at NAPIT and secretarial support for the ESR. Together, they walk through what the new regulations actually require, what the biggest operational challenges are, and how the Electrical Safety Roundtable has been working to support both landlords and tenants in meeting them.

The conversation covers what an electrical inspection involves and what the report codes mean, the scale of the access problem facing the sector, the free tenant education resources the ESR has developed — including an EasyRead document co-produced with adults with learning disabilities — and the thorny question of who is responsible when things go wrong.

It is a practical, grounded conversation on a topic that carries real consequences for residents living in social housing across the country. Well worth your time.

Big thank you to Case Management Solutions Group Ltd and Alertacall Ltd for sponsoring The Social Housing Round Table, without them, none of this would be possible.