Regulations signed off by the government last November mean social landlords will have to provide detailed registers of the presence of the deadly substance in many of their homes by 21 May. The registers will be made available to anyone likely to disturb the deadly substance during work on the properties.
This date, already looming large for the few housing associations and councils that have realised the scale of the task, is when the Health & Safety Executive will begin checking that landlords have compiled the registers.
If landlords fail to produce up-to-date registers, the HSE has the power to impose fines of £20,000 and, in some cases, prison.
The government estimates it will cost the sector £50m to compile the registers under what is called the "duty to manage" asbestos.
This bill could seriously eat into money earmarked for refurbishments needed to bring stock up to the decent homes standard.
Gallions Housing Association in south-east London, for instance, will spend £250,000 assessing its 6500 homes. Ken Rashbrooke, an asbestos consultant working for Gallions, said: "The sums involved in meeting this deadline are going to scare the wits out of people in the sector. If you want any accuracy – and the HSE will demand it – you are going to have to pay.
"People have to wise up to this – and fast."
The new rules come from the 2002 Control of Asbestos at Work Act, which requires social landlords to provide registers for "common parts of premises including housing developments and blocks of flats".
This is likely to be extended to all housing in the near future, the HSE said.
Ross Udall, an asbestos expert and director of consultant Particle Analysis, says asbestos is found in "90% of social housing".
Sarah Webb, policy director at the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: "We will be looking into this issue urgently. It would make sense for the ODPM to include this in its guidance to councils when they are assessing their stock options.
"If councils are commissioning a stock survey tomorrow, this should obviously include a check for asbestos."
Meanwhile, the cost of dealing with asbestos found while refurbishing stock to meet the decent homes standard has blown a number of councils' budgets badly off course.
Alan Drake, a building surveyor at Poole council in Dorset, which has 1800 homes that fail the decency standard, said: "There is an awful lot of ignorance around about this problem. A number of councils are turning a blind eye."
A spokeswoman for the ODPM said: "There is no question of exempting local authorities from the duty to manage. The ODPM expects local authorities to take all relevant factors into account when drawing up business plans and undertaking options appraisals."
Source
Housing Today
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