The government has revealed plans to give social housing tenants responsibility for carrying out repairs to their homes.  The government has said that it wants to reward tenants who take pride in maintaining their homes by handing over control of repair budgets to them.  However, trade unions have revealed fears that this proposal runs the risk of tenants disturbing asbestos and seriously risking their health.  Asbestos was used in many building and construction sites in Britain in the 1960’s and 1970’s due to its heat resisting properties and has found its way into many homes.  It is well established that even minimal exposure to asbestos dust can lead to serious conditions, including mesothelioma, a terminal cancer.

Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, recently said that maintenance and repairs cost social landlords £4bn a year and often the work that is carried out is something that tenants are capable of doing themselves.  The government plan is for routine maintenance to be conducted through a “tenants cash back” scheme under which tenants would be paid for undertaking the work themselves or the tenants could chose to pay a local builder and keep the savings. 

The proposed scheme has led to concerns being voiced by trade unions that tenants could inadvertently expose themselves to asbestos hidden in their homes.  A 2009 report for UCATT, called ‘Safe as Houses?’ revealed major defects with the way that asbestos was managed within the homes of social housing tenants.  At present, social landlords do not have a duty to maintain asbestos within the internal part of properties, although they do have such a duty when it comes to communal areas. The 2009 report strongly recommended that social landlords should be required, by law, to maintain an asbestos register for all properties.  This would include information on whether asbestos had been found, removed from or damaged in the properties.  Without such information there are serious concerns that tenants, completely in the dark as to the present of asbestos within their properties, could fail to take adequate precautions and expose themselves to deadly asbestos dust. 

The government scheme has also raised concerns that tenants will go for the lowest price option regardless of quality or expertise to obtain a cash windfall.  Local builders could be employed to carry out work that is currently being done by skilled, directly employed social housing maintenance workers, which could lead to shoddy work practices and increased costs in the long term.  More worrying is the fact that many tenants may make that decision unaware of the potential consequences for their health if asbestos is not removed in a controlled environment.

The government scheme is due to be tested by two housing associations with the possibility of the regulations being changed to spread the scheme across England later this year.

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About John Pickering and Partners LLP

John Pickering and Partners LLP- Specialist mesothelioma compensation solicitors

We are a dedicated personal injury law firm who do not do other types of work.  We specialise in claiming damages for asbestos sufferers. We have been handling compensation claims for industrial disease for over 30 years. Most of our work involves acting for asbestos disease victims who suffer from mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis and pleural thickening. We only act for the sufferers of asbestos diseases and never act for the organisations that caused the asbestos exposure or their insurers. We have an ethical approach and donate 10% of our net profits every year to good causes that help asbestos sufferers.  We have set up a charitable trust to help to fund medical research into mesothelioma and various organisations that help and support asbestos sufferers and their families.

Find out more about our donations to good causes. We have also been involved in most of the landmark judgments that shape this area of law. Find out more about us or  our reported cases. We are on the panels of several asbestos support groups and are ranked highly by legal guides.  Find out more about what others have said about us.

John Pickering and Partners LLP is a niche legal practice that has represented Claimants in the leading asbestos "test cases" in the last ten years. The firm represented Sylvia Barker in Barker v Corus (UK) Plc, a case that highlighted the legal tactics of employers and insurers trying to cut back their compensation liabilities to mesothelioma sufferers, and which prompted the amendment of the Compensation Act 2006 to ensure full compensation for mesothelioma claims. The firm represented two of the three Claimants in the landmark Fairchild appeal, in which the insurance industry tried unsuccessfully to block compensation altogether for mesothelioma sufferers unable to identify which of two or more sources of asbestos exposure had caused their illness.

The firm represented Alice Jefferson, a mesothelioma sufferer, whose illness and compensation claim against Cape Asbestos were featured in the important documentary "Alice: A Fight For Life." Shown by Yorkshire Television in July 1982, the programme was an important catalyst for legal change and public awareness of the plight of mesothelioma and other asbestos disease sufferers and a prompt for important legal reform.

Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that affects the lining of certain bodily organs. It most commonly affects the lining of the lungs (the pleura) but it can affect other areas including organs in the abdominal cavity (the peritoneum).

More than 2,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma every year in the UK and there is one mesothelioma death every five hours. The number of deaths from mesothelioma increased from 153 in 1968 to 1,969 in 2004 and is expected to peak at 2,450 between 2011 and 2015. 

The first Action Mesothelioma Day was launched on 27th February 2006.  Its objectives were to raise awareness about mesothelioma, to improve the treatment and care of mesothelioma patients, and to lobby for better funding for research into mesothelioma and for the protection and education of people who may be exposed to asbestos.

If you need advice about an asbestos related illness, contact us now for information about making a claim for compensation.

Contact us to find out more about your entitlement to claim compensation if you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer or pleural thickening.

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