A housing association led by the former head of the social housing regulator has been criticised by the Homes and Communities Agency for gas safety failures.
The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) today said 14,000-home Paradigm had breached the Home Standard, due to its failure to undertake checks on properties every year as required by law.
In a regulatory notice, the regulator said while a small number of homes had been affected, the inspections were overdue “for significant periods of time”.
Matthew Bailes, the chief executive of Paradigm, was the director of regulation at the HCA until last year. He took over as chief executive of Paradigm last August.
Paradigm got in touch with the HCA to disclose that it had identified a low number of properties without valid gas safety certificates following an internal data exercise. It is not clear precisely when Paradigm informed the regulator.
The HCA said the breach “exposed a number of tenants to the potential of serious harm for lengthy periods”.
“Paradigm has provided assurance that it has completed the outstanding gas safety checks. The regulator will therefore not take further action in this instance, as it has assurance that tenants are not at ongoing risk of serious harm,” the HCA said.