Amendment reflects central call of ASCP’s Access for Safety campaign for a clearer, safeguarded legal route where essential safety checks cannot be completed
The Association of Safety and Compliance Professionals has welcomed a House of Lords amendment to the Social Housing Bill that would create a clearer legal route for social landlords to secure access to homes for essential safety checks where engagement has repeatedly failed.
The amendment, tabled by Lord Best, would allow the court to authorise access to a home where a registered provider of social housing needs to comply with specified statutory safety duties. The proposed route includes clear notice requirements, prior requests for access, limits on the purpose of entry and court oversight.
The ASCP said the amendment represents an important parliamentary step towards the reform called for in its national Access for Safety campaign and white paper, Safety Can’t Wait Outside.
The campaign argues that the current legal framework has not kept pace with the safety duties now placed on social landlords. Where access repeatedly fails, essential checks and works can be delayed, serious risks can remain unresolved, and landlords are left navigating an uncertain and inconsistent legal route.
Matt Sharp, Chief Executive of The ASCP, said:
“We strongly welcome this amendment and the leadership shown by Lord Best, CIH, the National Housing Federation, the National Federation of ALMOs and others in bringing this issue directly before Parliament.
“This is exactly the kind of serious, constructive and practical progress the sector needs. For too long, access has been treated as a difficult operational issue when it is a fundamental resident safety issue.
“If the law places duties on social landlords to keep people safe inside their homes, it must also provide a clear, fair and properly safeguarded route to complete that work where access repeatedly fails.
“That is the central principle behind our Access for Safety campaign, and it is very encouraging to see that principle now reflected in a live parliamentary amendment.”
The ASCP’s Access for Safety white paper, published with support from CORGI Technical Services, sets out evidence indicating that around one in four social homes cannot be accessed at the first attempt for gas safety checks alone, resulting in more than one million repeat visits every year across the sector.
CORGI in-person inspection data, scaled nationally, also indicates there may currently be more than 200,000 social homes with At Risk or Immediately Dangerous gas installations and more than 90,000 homes with a C1 electrical danger present.
The white paper further estimates that repeated failed access attempts cost the UK social housing sector more than £175 million every year in direct operational costs alone, rising to as much as £245 million annually once legal escalation is included.
Matt Sharp continued:
“This is about people living in homes where serious risks may remain unseen, unresolved and waiting to be put right, if only we could get through the door.
“Most residents allow access without difficulty, and good landlords already work hard to communicate clearly, support vulnerable households and resolve issues through engagement. But there are cases where access repeatedly fails and essential safety work remains incomplete.
“A clearer legal route must never become a shortcut around resident engagement or a weakening of residents’ rights. It must be narrow, proportionate and properly safeguarded. But the current position leaves too much uncertainty, too much inconsistency and too much unresolved risk.”
The ASCP said the amendment is an important first step and urged government to work with the sector to ensure any final legal route is practical, proportionate and capable of supporting modern housing safety duties.
The current amendment focuses on specified statutory safety duties including gas safety, electrical safety, and smoke and carbon monoxide alarm requirements. The ASCP believes further consideration will be needed to ensure the legal framework keeps pace with the wider safety landscape, including damp and mould, fire-related activity within dwellings, Awaab’s Law and other prescribed safety risks where access is essential to protecting residents.
Matt Sharp added:
“This amendment gives Parliament a vital opportunity to move the issue from discussion to action.
“We recognise and welcome the work now being taken forward across the sector. The ASCP will continue to contribute the evidence, technical insight and practitioner voice needed to help shape a solution that protects residents, supports landlords and gives frontline safety professionals the clarity they need to do their jobs.
“The principle is simple: where the law requires essential safety checks and works to be carried out, it must also provide a clear route by which they can be completed.
“Because safety matters, access for safety must matter too.”
The ASCP is encouraging peers, MPs, government, housing providers, regulators, professional bodies and resident safety organisations to support the amendment and engage with the Access for Safety campaign.
Further information, including the full white paper, executive briefing and campaign materials, is available at: