Gas Safety Week sees the gas industry, engineers and responsible landlords come together every year with one aim – to keep us all safe. The theme of this year’s campaign, which is in its 13th year, is ‘Diversity’ and is focussed on celebrating gas engineers and the essential role they play in keeping us all gas safe. 

Gas Safety Week raises awareness of gas safety and the importance of taking care of gas appliances. It is co-ordinated by Gas Safe Register, the official list of gas engineers who are legally allowed to work on gas. 

Badly fitted and poorly serviced gas appliances can cause gas leaks, fires, explosions and carbon monoxide poisoning. Every year more than 30 people are killed by faulty gas appliances and there are thousands of cases of carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide is a highly poisonous gas. You can’t see it, taste it or smell it, but it can kill quickly and without warning. 

As a landlord, we have a legal duty to carry out annual safety checks on any gas appliances in our homes.  

We also make sure that appliances are working efficiently. At a time of soaring energy costs, that is even more important because it can help to reduce fuel bills, something that we have supported with a far-reaching programme of work to improve the energy efficiency in more than 100 homes so far. 

In 2022-23 we carried out 17,840 gas services and inspections in homes, retirement living communities and offices. 

All our homes have been fitted with carbon monoxide alarms to protect our customers from the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.  

Our contractor, Phoenix Gas Services attach a barcode gas safety ‘tag’ to the gas meter in all our properties with a gas supply.  

An engineer visiting a home for a safety check, service or repair, will touch their mobile device against the tag. This automatically verifies their certification and gives customers the reassurance that only Gas Safe Registered engineers are carrying out this crucial work.  

Homes Plus prioritises gas safety every week. In Gas Safety Week, we are asking all our customers to take three steps to ‘Get in the Know’ and keep homes, families and neighbours safe. 

• Step 1: Help us to keep you safe. It’s an important condition of your tenancy that you give us access to your home to carry out essential safety checks. When we need to carry out a safety inspection, we will contact you and let you know when we, or one of our contractors, will visit your home to complete the work. If you need to reschedule a safety check appointment, please contact our customer services team on 0800 048 8955 as soon as possible. Each year we spend more than £64,500 on missed pre-booked appointments, reducing the budget that we have for home improvements, including vital work to boost energy efficiency.  

• Step 2: Look out for warning signs your gas appliances aren’t working correctly - lazy yellow or orange flames instead of crisp blue ones, black marks on or around the appliance and too much condensation in the room. 

• Step 3: Know the six symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning – headaches, dizziness, breathlessness, nausea, collapse and loss of consciousness. 

If you are concerned that a meter may have been tampered with, call our customer services team on 0800 048 8955. You can also report it anonymously to Stay Energy Safe by completing a form on their website https://www.stayenergysafe.co.uk/   
 
In case of an emergency call the National Gas Emergency Line on 0800 111 999.