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The Regulator of Social Housing has found GreenSquareAccord breached the Home Standard in relation to fire, electrical and asbestos safety.

As a consequence of this breach, “there was the potential for serious detriment to GreenSquareAccord’s tenants,” the Regulator said.

In its judgement, the Regulator said that the issues were found in the former Accord Housing Association stock.

“In respect of fire safety, GreenSquareAccord has a statutory duty to regularly assess the risk of fire and to take precautions to prevent the risk of fire.

“The regulator has learned that hundreds of properties do not have a current fire risk assessment (FRA), with a smaller number having never been assessed. GreenSquareAccord noted that some of these had become overdue because of Covid restrictions.

“GreenSquareAccord is required to ensure that electrical installations are in working and safe condition both at the start of any tenancy and throughout that tenancy.

“GreenSquareAccord has reported to us that more than 10,000 of its properties have never had an electrical inspection. This includes thousands of individual homes and hundreds of housing blocks.

“For asbestos safety, the evidence provided to the regulator by GreenSquareAccord showed that no asbestos surveys had been carried out in Accord’s communal areas.

“For these reasons, the regulator has concluded that GreenSquareAccord has breached the Home Standard, and as consequence, there was the potential for serious detriment to tenants.”

The Regulator notes that since the breach, the organisation has undertaken a “data cleanse and integration exercise” as well as a recovery programme to prioritise work. This work means that no enforcement action is necessary.