My Lords, I will start by reminding everyone that I have a registered interest as a member of Kirklees council, which manages social housing that will be affected by these regulations. Much of what the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, has said is also in my notes—but there are one or two differences.
Broadly, this is an important step forward in making rental homes in both the private and social housing sector safer for tenants. It is a great surprise to me that social housing was omitted from the 2015 regulations, so I am pleased that these regulations are going to put that right. The Office for National Statistics, when I had a look this morning, records that over 100 lives are lost each year from carbon monoxide poisoning. It did not differentiate between domestic and non-domestic deaths; nevertheless, 100 lives are lost from a silent killer, as the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, has explained. So, requiring the installation and, importantly, the maintenance of alarms will undoubtedly help to save lives.
It is also good to see that the regulations include a requirement for landlords in both rental sectors—private and social housing—to ensure maintenance and respond in a reasonably practicable time. I hate that phrase, because it means something and nothing. I wonder whether the Minister would be able to give us a broad definition of what “reasonably practicable” would look like. No doubt landlords who have a positive relationship with their tenant will respond promptly, but not all landlords are in that category.
Those are all positives, but I have some questions. The first one is about the type of smoke alarm. I am surprised that there is not more being said about the type of alarm that is going to fulfil the regulations. Nine-volt battery alarms, which are the cheapest and therefore most likely to be the ones that some landlords will use to fulfil their obligations, need a battery change every six months—I think it is the National Fire Protection Association that recommends that. There are lots of reasons why that will not happen.
Some homes will think that they are secure but are not. I find it surprising that that has not been more fully explored. The sealed lithium battery models last 10 years; that is a good length of time. I wonder
whether there is anything the Minister can do to give us some comfort that the Government will be recommending or pushing for those to be used.
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The other thing is that some landlords will say to the tenant, “Here are your smoke alarm and your carbon monoxide alarm”—although you can get the two together—and give them the box, and that is it. I tell you, if they are in a box and that is it, they will go in a cupboard and that will be it. I have some experience of this. As part of the Kirklees warm zone scheme, there was free insulation—which I have mentioned several times—and we also gave to everybody who needed one a free smoke alarm and a free carbon monoxide alarm. From questioning not long afterwards, we discovered that a lot of them were never used—they were put in a cupboard or a drawer in the kitchen and that was it. So the Minister should perhaps think about a requirement that the landlord has to see that they are properly installed; that would be helpful.
I had the same question as the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, about gas cookers and why they were excluded. But it has been asked and I hope that the Minister will be able to answer it.
Then there is the question of getting access to properties. As with nearly all fire safety issues—gas checks, electrical appliance tests and now this—if a tenant refuses, it is difficult to get access. If you do not get access, you have faulty appliances and faulty fire and smoke alarms and all the good of this regulation is undone. So, again, it would be good to hear from the Minister how that may be overcome.
In 2008, a 10 year-old boy in Huddersfield died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. The deadly gas was not in his home—it was seeping through the walls from the terraced house next door. He was asleep and, when his mum went to get him up in the morning, he was dead. There was a faulty boiler in the next-door house, which was a private property. The question that was asked was, “Why are not all properties—especially terraced or semi-detached—required to have alarms?” Failures in one house can affect those living in the adjacent property.
Finally, I have not checked the regulations, but can the Minister tell us whether all new builds are required to have both carbon monoxide and smoke alarms wired in? If not, we are missing a trick.
With those questions, I must say that I totally support the progress that is being made and I look forward to the questions being answered.