Sovereign South + West Case Study

Sovereign South+West ( now incorporates Sovereign Twynham)
Part of Sovereign Housing
Location/Area: Various location ranging from Slough to Plymouth including the South Coast (main concentration is around Newbury)
Duration: Ongoing since 2004
Team: A.C.E Ltd - Bristol Operations

The Issue

Sovereign South+West has significantly increased its portfolio of domestic properties from 7,000 to more than 20,000 homes across the south and south west of England, after acquiring them from Newbury District Council in 1989. Most of these properties were built between 1920 and 1999 and have building materials containing asbestos. Therefore Sovereign South+West is required to manage asbestos in these domestic (and a handful of commercial) properties.

The Task

Sovereign South+West commissioned ‘Asbestos Consultants to the Environment Ltd’ (ACE) to conduct management surveys of their complete portfolio of domestic properties and to then update the corresponding Asbestos register. This is done for the safety of their tenants, staff and contractors, and for compliance with Section 3 of the Health and Safety at work Act 1974, Regulation 4 of CAR 2012, Defective Premises Act 1972, and EPA Environmental Protection Act 1990 (any dust likely to cause injury to the public). Additionally, under the programmed work driven by the Bathroom and Kitchen Refurbishments programmes, ACE carries out refurbishment and demolition surveys before any scheduled refurbishment or demolition works commence. This means that any Asbestos containing materials (ACMs), that could potentially be disturbed during the re-fit or refurbishment is removed well in advance. Our surveyor/technicians are also equipped to carry out either planned or ‘on the spot’ air fibre monitoring.

The Approach

We have been successfully conducting Asbestos Management services for Sovereign South+West since 2004. Major contributing factors in this include our extensive resource pool of highly trained and qualified professionals, ability to cover a large geographical area and in-house laboratory for fast and efficient bulk sample analysis.

The services we provide to Sovereign include surveys (both management and refurbishment / demolition surveys), air fibre monitoring, asbestos training, data entry, maintenance and support database management (AMS), bulk sample analysis and other associated asbestos management services. These services are provided predominately in relation to domestic properties (including communal and external areas of blocks of flats) and when required, to commercial premises.

While conducting the work, ACE ensures that the minimum disruption is caused to occupants of a property. We achieve this by first sending a letter to inform tenants in advance about the works to schedule the survey at a time/date convenient to them. If necessary this is followed up with phone calls and additional appointment letters. We offer out of hours (evening and weekend) appointments for occupants who work full time or have full time commitments during the daytime. Accurate records of our access/attempts including the date, type of contact (phone, letter, calling card left), missed appointments, incorrect phone numbers etc are kept by our team of schedulers; Sovereign is regularly updated.

A dedicated team of ten fully trained professionals have been assigned to Sovereign projects. When necessary, ACE assigns additional staff to meet urgent demand for surveys or other services. The Operations/ Project Manager is in regular contact with Sovereign’s Services Project Engineer and holds periodic contract review meetings to provide updates, discuss future works and to keep track of milestones of the existing projects. Over the course of the project ACE has surveyed up to 60 properties a week. The survey turn around times range from between 24 hours in the times of emergency to several weeks as per the standard agreed timescales.

ACE surveys the properties and produces reports that are imported on to Sovereign’s AMS database. This information is provided to their staff and contractors through the AMS Suite via AMS Webtracker.

ACE follows similar approach when Sovereign purchased or acquired properties from other housing associations, through the Mortgage Rescue Scheme and for all ad hoc repair work, unplanned maintenance and re-wiring of premises.

The Outcome

ACE have been successfully managing asbestos related issues for Sovereign South+West for more than 7 years and over 50% of their housing stock has now been surveyed. The project has always been carried out as per the agreed milestones, within budget and accident free. This case study demonstrates ACE’s ability to deliver a wide range of services, its willingness to engage in a close working relationship with the customer to enable them to achieve their targets, and its ability to carry out work responsibly, without causing disruption to the occupants of their domestic properties.