Regulatory standards for landlords
​Safety and Quality Standard
1. Required outcomes
1.3 Health and safety
1.3.1 When acting as landlords, registered providers must take all reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of tenants in their homes and associated communal areas.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The act above has been written to protect tenants. Tenants in general needs 55+ housing have 'repairs staff' visiting and certain buildings have employed cleaning staff, carers and support workers visiting on a regular basis, all of which are likely employed. There are also likely to me post people, couriers, meal deliverers and emergency services visiting residential buildings. There is a law in place that protects employed people that go about there business on social housing premises, the law is the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
If there is a failure to protect tenants and guests of tenants in their homes and in associated communal areas then the same risk applies to people who are employed to visit the same premises / building and the Health and Safety at Work Act should also apply because the risk is the same, all be it less of a risk than actually living in a building where there is a risk on a full time basis. Although there may be an additional and associated risk because of the different types of tenants that may be being helped. e.g. the additional risk of working with people who have problems with mental health, who are prone to falls or dropping things etc., there is no need to put a full list here, but on dealing with people more prone to accidents there is more risk to employees and therefore additional needs to support there safety which could therefore include items needed for safety, which may include additional fire fighting support i.e. fire extinguishers.
Needless to say not everyone abides by their tenancy agreement, or in case of those with learning or cognitive difficulties is able to understand its contents. Therefore there are likely to be homes where flammable compounds or gases are stored against the agreement.
If of course someone was to set themselves on fire by accident, then human nature dictates people would try and seek help. Given general needs 55+ accommodation for 1-2 people are most likely singly occupied then seeking help would mean the resident would try and get to a communual area to seek help. This is simply why fire extinguishers are vital and would be needed to preserve life and prevent harm or injury. This is not about the additional costs that relate to national insurance, public liability or safety, it's all about corporate and basic common sense! All too often statistics are used to prove worth, but tenants are not statistics, they are living human beings. What has to be noted is that the word 'safety' is a term applied by an individual as a state of feeling or being. 'Safety' should become a term applied by a housing association based on statistic or calculated risk, especially as 'safety' would in a corporate sense, be potentially determined or governed by a single individual, of unknown level of experience, or practical or theoretical ability.
Of course one thing that could well happen if we were to look at scenarios. A tenant could accidentally catch themselves alight in their home and run into a communual area such as a balcony, see a familiar face, a Housing Officer and run at them shouting help me help me! The Housing Officer would likely want to know where they could get hold of a fire extinguisher, and especially if the person was trying to grab hold of them at the time.