Platform Housing credits 12-week access process for six months of 100% gas compliance

Platform Housing Group has credited a longer 12-week access process and earlier involvement of housing staff for six months of 100% gas compliance, while urging the sector to look beyond headline figures.

Philip Trickett, the group's Head of Heating and Compliance, set out the approach in a presentation to the ASCP26 conference in Newport, which the Association of Safety and Compliance Professionals (ASCP) held at ICC Newport on 8 and 9 September 2026.

Platform said more than 80% of its properties are accessed on the first visit and almost 95% by the second. Trickett's argument, according to the landlord, was that the greatest potential risk tends to sit in the small remainder where repeated attempts fail.

"The greatest risks can sit within those hard to access properties. There is nearly always a story behind unsuccessful access, whether that's a customer's health, vulnerability, financial circumstances or another issue affecting their tenancy," he said.

The process

Platform said it has extended its compliance process from eight to 12 weeks to give teams more time to engage with harder-to-reach customers and understand what is preventing access.

What Platform calls its CLO and housing colleagues now become involved earlier in the process, the group said. Weekly locality meetings bring together staff who know the customer and the area, and flexible engineering resources allow it to respond to individual circumstances.

The landlord said the change has produced 100% gas compliance for the last six months. It has also brought its electrical installation condition report process more closely into line with the gas model, which it said supports earlier intervention and tighter management of unsatisfactory outcomes.

On technology, Platform said it uses Voicescape for customer engagement, sends notifications telling customers when an operative is on the way, and uses TCW technology to check that reported performance reflects what is actually happening inside homes.

Trickett drew a distinction between completing a contractual compliance process and having genuine assurance that a home is safe. A property returned to the landlord after a no-access procedure, he said, does not automatically have its underlying safety risk removed.

"Safety should not be viewed as a competitive advantage and internal procedures should not be treated as trade secrets," he said.

The regulatory baseline

The Health and Safety Executive's guidance for landlords says gas appliances and flues must be checked annually by a Gas Safe registered engineer. Where a tenant refuses access, the HSE says a landlord has to show it took all reasonable steps to comply with the law, and its inspectors look for at least three attempts to complete the check.

The Regulator of Social Housing's latest judgement on Platform, from November 2025, retained its G1 governance and V1 viability grades. The consumer grade had not yet been assessed at that point.

The ASCP said Awaab's Law ran through the ASCP26 programme, with access, resident engagement, leadership and culture as cross-cutting themes. The event covered gas, electrical and fire safety, damp and mould, building safety, resident engagement and emerging technology, with 16 hours of continuing professional development mapped across the two days.

Platform's scale

Platform describes itself as one of the largest housing associations in the Midlands, owning over 50,000 homes and housing more than 120,000 people across an area stretching from Herefordshire to the Lincolnshire coast, with 1,600 colleagues.

Year to 31 March	New homes completed	Turnover
2025	1,036	£374.5m
2026	1,380	£384.6m

Development completions rose by a third to 1,380 in 2025/26, and turnover increased 2.7% to £384.6m, according to the annual financial report published by Platform HG Financing PLC. Platform said it invested more than £650m in homes over the last year.

The group is rated A+ with a negative outlook by both Standard & Poor's and Fitch.