Safety Can't Wait Outside Campaign: ASCP Calls for Urgent Access Rights Reform

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The Association of Safety and Compliance Professionals (ASCP), with support from CORGI Technical Services, has launched a national campaign calling for urgent legal reform to create a clearer, safeguarded route for essential safety checks and works in social housing where access is repeatedly refused or unavailable.

Residents may live with problems for weeks, months or even years without reporting them because they do not recognise the danger, believe nothing will be done, worry about causing trouble or simply become accustomed to living with poor conditions, meanwhile inspectors and contractors cannot gain access when they need to in order to undertake checks or complete works.

For landlords, that creates an important question - how confident are you that you know what is happening behind every front door?

 

What is the campaign about?

The Safety Can't Wait Outside campaign warns that the legal framework relating to landlord access rights has not kept pace with the modern realities of housing safety, leaving essential safety work at risk of delay where landlords cannot secure access to residents’ homes.

It is calling for a narrow, safeguarded statutory route to secure access for prescribed safety checks and works only, with clear notice requirements, prior reasonable engagement, protection for vulnerable residents and strict limits on the purpose of entry.

The campaign also aims to encourage residents to report potential safety concerns and help landlords identify risks before they become more serious.

It highlights hazards including:

• Damp and mould
• Electrical problems
• Gas safety concerns
• Fire safety risks
• Structural defects
• Other potentially dangerous housing conditions

 

The campaign provides landlords with resources that can be used to communicate directly with residents and encourage earlier reporting.

But its message goes beyond communications.

It highlights the importance of creating a culture where residents feel confident that reporting a problem will result in appropriate action.

 

Why might hazards go unreported?

Not every resident understands when a property defect represents a potential health or safety risk.

Some may tolerate recurring leaks, mould, faulty electrical fittings or other problems because they do not realise their significance.

Others may have previously reported repairs without receiving an effective response and lose confidence in doing so again.

There may also be additional barriers involving vulnerability, language, accessibility or concerns about the consequences of complaining.

Landlords therefore cannot assume that an absence of repair reports means an absence of hazards.

 

How does this link to Awaab’s Law and HHSRS?

The campaign is particularly timely given the implementation of Awaab’s Law and the updated Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) guidance.

Both reinforce the importance of recognising hazards, assessing risk and intervening before residents suffer avoidable harm.

For social landlords, notification of a potential hazard can also trigger important responsibilities under Awaab’s Law, which makes effective reporting channels, triage and escalation increasingly important.

Frontline people must therefore be able to recognise when what appears to be an ordinary repair report could indicate something more serious.

 

Reporting is only the start

Perhaps the most important lesson from the campaign is that encouraging residents to report hazards is only effective if landlords respond properly when they do.

That means:

• making reporting simple and accessible
• listening carefully to residents
• identifying potential risks at first contact
• investigating root causes rather than symptoms
• keeping residents informed
• recording information so repeat problems can be identified

 

Every repair report provides information about the condition and safety of a home.

 

What does this mean for housing disrepair?

This has an important connection with housing disrepair as many serious disrepair cases begin with relatively manageable defects which deteriorate over time. A small leak can eventually cause extensive damp and mould; a minor defect can develop into a significant hazard.

Encouraging residents to report problems early provides landlords with an opportunity to investigate, diagnose and resolve defects before they escalate.

But responsibility cannot rest entirely with residents - professional disrepair management also requires landlords to understand their homes through inspections, stock condition information, repair histories and other available data and also good, trusting relationships with their tenants and leaseholders.

The strongest approach combines resident communication with property intelligence.

 

Why does this matter?

The ASCP campaign reinforces an important principle for the housing sector - you cannot manage a risk you do not know about, but you should not rely solely on residents to tell you that every risk exists.

The challenge for landlords is therefore twofold - create the confidence and channels residents need to report concerns, while developing the data, inspections and organisational awareness needed to identify hazards proactively.

The earlier a problem is identified, the greater the opportunity to prevent a repair becoming disrepair or a hazard that may cause harm.

 

How can DISREPAIR AWARE help?

Many social and private rented homes are not inspected regularly or maintained properly - we want to help improve housing conditions for everyone.

DISREPAIR AWARE helps:

• tenants and leaseholders to understand their legal rights and get support
• registered providers, private landlords and managing agents to understand their legal obligations and get compliant
  

 

You can find more news and insights about housing disrepair on our Blog.

Note: This Blog post may be updated from time to time.