A HOUSING group has been condemned for not carrying out gas safety checks.
Huddersfield-based West Yorkshire Housing Association has been criticised by Audit Commission inspectors.
They found a number of problems.
The most worrying was the management of gas servicing at hundreds of homes in Huddersfield.
The Government inspectors found the association did not meet the required national standard.
A commission spokesman said the inspectors were worried that the association did not carry out safety checks properly.
Also, there was no involvement with tenants over the checks.
He added that the association often did not carry out repairs if any safety problems were found.
The association provides more than 800 homes in Kirklees, Calderdale and Wakefield. It has homes in Almondbury, Deighton, Fartown, Newsome, Heckmondwike and Dewsbury.
The commission's head of housing in the North, Nick Atkin, said
the association should use the commission's report as a guide towards radically improving matters.
A random check found that of 101 properties belonging to elderly people, just five had had their gas systems serviced in a 12-month period.
The Health and Safety Executive recommends annual inspections.
The report comes just four months after 10-year-old Dominic Rodgers, of Spaines Road, Fartown, died after inhaling carbon monoxide.
An association spokeswoman said: "The commission's findings and action plan offers an opportunity to focus on implementing planned improvements.
"We will be working in partnership with the Housing Corporation to demonstrate how swiftly we can comply with the action plan."
