New white paper warns people can be left living with serious unresolved hazards where essential safety work cannot be completed in social homes

The Association of Safety and Compliance Professionals has launched a national campaign to protect residents from serious safety risks that can remain hidden behind closed doors.

The campaign calls 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.

At the centre of the campaign is a new white paper, Safety can’t wait outside, published with support from CORGI Technical Services. The paper warns that the legal framework 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.

The ASCP 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 comes as social landlords face rising expectations across gas safety, electrical safety, fire-related activity, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, damp and mould, and wider hazard response. New legal and regulatory duties are increasing the urgency with which risks must be identified, investigated and resolved, but each of those duties still depend on one practical condition: being able to get through the front door.

The white paper argues that access has shifted from a missed-appointment problem to a systemic safety issue.

ASCP evidence estimates that around one in four social homes cannot be accessed at the first attempt for gas safety checks alone, leading to more than one million repeat visits every year across the sector. The paper also estimates that nearly one million social homes need two or more visits before access is secured.

CORGI in-person inspection data, scaled nationally, indicates there may currently be:

 more than 200,000 social homes with At Risk or Immediately Dangerous gas
installations;
 more than 90,000 homes with a C1 electrical danger present.

The ASCP says these figures show that access failure is not an administrative inconvenience. Serious hazards can remain unresolved behind closed doors, sometimes for weeks or months.

Residents, neighbouring households, shared buildings and wider communities are left exposed to risks that should already have been identified and addressed.

The white paper further estimates that repeated failed access attempts cost the UK social housing sector more than £175 million every year in direct operational costs alone. Once legal escalation is included, the annual cost is estimated to sit between £200 million and £245 million.

Matt Sharp, Chief Executive of the ASCP, said:

“Safety professionals cannot fix dangers they cannot reach. If a serious gas defect, electrical danger or damp and mould hazard sits behind a closed door, the risk does not disappear simply because access has failed’’.

‘‘Across the country, social landlords are spending enormous amounts of time and money repeatedly trying to gain access to homes so they can carry out safety work the law already requires. That effort keeps many programmes moving, but it not a sustainable way to
manage risk at national scale.’’

‘‘This campaign is not about weakening residents’ rights or giving landlords unchecked powers. It is about creating a narrow, fair and properly safeguarded legal route so essential safety work can be completed where engagement has repeatedly failed.’’

‘‘If the law requires these checks and works to be carried out, it must also provide a clear route by which they can be completed. Safety can’t wait outside.’’

The ASCP’s campaign highlights how the current framework leaves social landlords navigating a patchwork of statutory duties, tenancy wording, court applications, local practice and legal uncertainty. Specialist legal advice obtained by the ASCP confirms that there is no general statutory or common law right for social landlords to force entry for routine safety inspections, even where serious legal duties apply.

The white paper also highlights inconsistency across the wider housing and building safety landscape. Statutory access routes already exist in some adjacent regimes, including local authority housing enforcement and the higher-risk building regime, but prescribed safety checks inside social homes still lack comparable clarity where access repeatedly fails.

The ASCP is calling for reform that is tightly defined and clearly safeguarded. Any new statutory route should include:
 access limited to prescribed safety checks and works;
 clear notice requirements;
 prior reasonable engagement before escalation;
 specific protections for vulnerable residents;
 proper regard to disability, communication needs and safeguarding concerns;
 entry limited strictly to the stated safety purpose;
 clear record keeping, authorisation and accountability.

The organisation argues that reform would strengthen resident safety, reduce delays, cut repeated access costs, improve regulatory assurance and provide greater clarity for both landlords and residents.

Matt Sharp added:

‘‘Most residents allow access without difficulty, and good landlords already work hard to communicate clearly, support vulnerable households and resolve problems through engagement.’’

‘‘But there are cases where access repeatedly fails and essential safety work remains incomplete. The current system can leave residents uncertain, frontline teams exposed and landlords carrying serious duties without a clear route to discharge them.’’

‘‘After every serious housing failure, the same question is asked: could more have been done sooner? This campaign is about making sure the system does not prevent safety professionals from acting before risks become crises.’’

The ASCP is now calling on housing providers, policymakers, regulators, professional bodies and sector leaders to support the campaign and help build momentum for legislative change.

Organisations can support the campaign by adding their name to the public logo wall, writing to their MP, sharing evidence and examples of good practice, and engaging with the ASCP as the campaign develops.

To join the campaign, download the white paper or access the media pack, visit: www.accessforsafety.com