Posted 25/05/2022

Swan Statement - Regulatory Notice

The Regulator of Social Housing has today published a regulatory notice stating that Swan’s management of statutory health and safety compliance has breached the requirements of the Home Standard. This is one of the four Consumer Standards that we must comply with as a registered provider of social housing. This relates to the completion of fire risk assessments and remedial actions; the completion of asbestos management surveys in communal areas; systems to record recommendations of water safety risk assessments and the quality of our data and performance reporting. 

Swan Housing Association recognises that the safety of our customers is our paramount responsibility, and we are fully committed to ensuring building safety compliance as a matter of urgency.   

Following a Health and Safety review, we self-reported the compliance issues to the Regulator in addition to implementing an immediate improvement programme.

This improvement programme includes a new health and safety framework with new teams, systems, and processes, and will address all overdue actions as a matter of urgency.  Supporting this, we have also put in place robust safety measures to ensure the safety of our customers whilst these works are carried out.

All outstanding asbestos surveys of communal areas are expected to be completed by the end of June 2022 and we have verified that checks on individual homes are compliant. New processes also ensure compliant record keeping is in place to document all water inspections moving forward.

We would like to reassure our customers that working with our new Director of Health & Building Safety and our external advisors to complete the actions in this improvement plan, whilst continuing engagement with the Regulator around this matter, is our highest priority and, that in light of the programme already put in place, the Regulator has assurance that the breach of the Home Standard is being remedied.

Susan Hickey, Chief Executive of Swan Housing Association said: 

“We would like to apologise to our customers for the failures in our approach which have led to the Regulator’s notice issued today.

“We have put a robust improvement plan in place and are working closely with external advisors to ensure that this situation is rectified as a matter of urgency. Swan Housing Association’s absolute priority is to ensure our customers are safe in their homes and we will continue to engage with the Regulator throughout the delivery of the improvement programme”

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If you have a question or concern that relates to fire, water or asbestos safety, please call us on 0300 303 2500  and ask to speak to a member of our Building Safety Team or email fire-related queries to firesafety@swan.org.uk and water or asbestos-related queries to buildingsafety@swan.org.uk.

You can report a repair in the usual way by contacting Axis by calling 0800 783 2768 or emailing swanresidents@axiseurope.com.