Sovereign Housing Capital Plc Press Release - 26 January 2022 (7107Z)

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RNS Number : 7107Z

Sovereign Housing Capital Plc

26 January 2022

Sovereign Housing Association Limited

Press Release - 26 January 2022

The Regulator of Social Housing has today published a regulatory notice stating that Sovereign's management of statutory health and safety compliance has breached the requirements of the Home Standard. This relates to overdue checks in communal areas relating to asbestos, fire risk assessments (FRA) and electrical safety.

The findings do not relate to checks in individual homes, where we can confirm ongoing compliance.

Sovereign has undertaken an extensive programme to establish properties in need of safety checks and to carry them out. All asbestos checks were completed by the end of December 2021. All electrical safety checks have now been completed and all fire risk assessments are on track to be completed by the end of February.

The reinspection programmes relate to communal areas for asbestos, FRAs and electrical checks and not to individual homes. Our separate domestic survey programmes for asbestos and electrical are up to date. FRAs only apply to communal areas.

In August 2021 Sovereign's property services team noticed discrepancies in our data relating to properties subject to an annual asbestos reinspection. We acted immediately to establish if properties required a survey and to carry out an inspection as soon as possible. We also looked at our other inspection programmes to establish if properties were due a fire risk assessment or electrical safety check. We are investing GBP1.5m to address the gaps in our surveys, which have been underway since September and will be largely completed by the end of January.

We informed the Regulator of Social Housing at the earliest opportunity and have been in regular contact with them since mid-September.

For fire safety we identified a baseline of 1917 blocks without complete data and of these, to date, 10% have required a fire risk assessment. For electrical safety we identified a baseline of 2090 blocks without complete data and of those 14% were added to the reinspection programme. For asbestos we identified a baseline of 440 blocks and of those 47% were added to the reinspection programme.

Everyone at Sovereign has a responsibility to our customers and, above all, to their safety. Within the last year a new director of property services and a new director of health and safety were appointed, and they are leading the recovery programme. The director of Audit & Risk is carrying out a root cause investigation and has appointed independent consultancy Campbell Tickell to carry out a thorough investigation. In addition, Sovereign is implementing a new Building Safety and Compliance Framework.

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Iain Mackrory-Jamieson, Company Secretary, Sovereign Housing Association Limited 07919252585 [e-mail]

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January 26, 2022 05:14 ET (10:14 GMT)