Swan Housing Association has partnered with Southend Council to deliver 1,760 new homes, as well as new shops and cafes, as part of the Queensway estate regeneration.

The regulatory notice published last week revealed the landlord has around 1,500 overdue fire safety remedial actions.

“As a consequence of this breach, there was the potential for serious detriment to the provider’s tenants,” the report warned.

The report: “In respect of fire safety, Swan has a statutory duty to regularly assess the risk of fire and to take precautions to prevent the risk of fire. There were indications of concerns about fire safety as early as March 2020, when Swan identified internally an increase in the number of overdue fire risk assessments.

“By October 2020, almost 200 fire risk assessments were overdue. Swan did not inform the regulator of the emerging issues with its fire safety at that time. Swan has since completed the overdue fire risk assessments, although a number of remedial actions arising from them subsequently became overdue. At the point of the self-referral to the regulator in March 2022, Swan had almost 1,500 remedial actions overdue. Of these, more than half were high or medium risk actions. At the end of April 2022, over 650 high and medium risk actions remain overdue.

“Swan has a statutory duty to manage asbestos in communal areas. The provider reported that more than half of its communal areas did not have an asbestos management survey in place. Swan also reported it was not following guidance for an annual review of areas where asbestos was present, as it was only carrying out reviews every five years.

“With regards to water safety, while Swan reported it had completed water safety risk assessments for all relevant properties, it did not hold evidence that recommendations from assessments had been completed.

“The regulator considered the case as a breach of part 1.2 of the Home Standard and has concluded that Swan has not had an effective system in place to allow it to meet its statutory health and safety responsibilities across a range of areas.

“Complying with statutory health and safety requirements is a fundamental responsibility of all registered providers because of the potential for serious harm to tenants. Swan has demonstrated to the regulator that it understands the work it needs to undertake to ensure that it completes the required statutory checks and relevant safety actions and has accurate data of the checks and actions completed.

“However, taking into account the seriousness of the issues, the duration for which tenants were potentially exposed to risk, and the number of tenants potentially affected, the regulator has concluded that it is proportionate to find that Swan has breached the Home Standard and that there was a risk of serious detriment to tenants during this period.

Susan Hickey, acting chief executive of Swan, said: “We would like to apologise to our customers for the failures in our approach which have led to the regulator’s notice.

“We have put a robust improvement plan in place and are working closely with external advisors to ensure that this situation is rectified as a matter of urgency.

“Swan Housing Association’s absolute priority is to ensure our customers are safe in their homes and we will continue to engage with the regulator throughout the delivery of the improvement programme.”