A north-east housing provider is holding its first electrical safety awareness campaign, in the week that staff have a date in Westminster.
Between 14 and 18 November, County Durham-based believe housing is sharing potentially life-saving advice with customers in its 18,200 homes.
Nik Turner, Executive Director of Communities and Customer Services at believe housing, explains: “Our number one priority is to keep colleagues and customers safe.
“We know times are tough and people might be looking for cheaper ways to heat their home.
“With Christmas around the corner, many people will be plugging in fairy lights and buying electrical gifts.
“If our customers have any concerns regarding the electrics in their homes, we ask that they contact us so we can ensure they remain safe.
“We hope this awareness campaign highlights some of the easy mistakes people make when using the electricity in their home or even purchasing electrical items; we want our customers to be informed.
“We’re reminding customers not to make decisions that could put themselves and loved ones at risk, with useful advice on our website and social media.
“Most importantly we urge any customer who is struggling this winter to get in touch with us for help.”
The Electrical Safety Week comes as Electrical Manager, Mark Fort, and Director of Property Repairs, Rachel Cox, head to an event at the House of Commons on Wednesday, 16 November.
The parliamentary reception will celebrate ten years of the Electrical Safety Roundtable (ESR) and bring together MPs, Lords, civil servants and industry peers to discuss ‘enhancing electrical safety standards in the UK’.
The ESR is an industry forum which provides research and policy solutions to government and expert, independent electrical safety guidance to industry and consumers.
In 2018, the ESR set up a dedicated sub-group to focus on enhancing electrical safety standards in social housing.
As a member of the sub-group, Mark helped to write the rules that many social housing providers across the country follow to keep residents safe in their homes.
He explains: “We realised we needed to share information for the greater good.
“We were all facing the same challenges such as not having standardised policies and procedures in place, getting access into homes to do important work and we needed to address the frequency of testing and inspections.
“We created the first Code of Practice, which was released in January 2019, so social housing providers can all see what they should be doing.
“I’ve seen some massive improvements since then, it has advised organisations and given a baseline for housing standards, helping to convince the decision-makers to put the resources needed into achieving best practice.
“My sole focus at believe housing and on the committee is safety, of customers, colleagues and the business.
“What the Electrical Safety Roundtable has done is give the social housing sector a say and offered consistent advice.
“This invitation to Westminster is recognition that we’re making a difference, and that’s nice to know.
“For me, and believe housing, this is about underlining our core value to do the right thing: for our people, for our customers, for our business.”
