Riverside - Riverside backs safety campaign

Social landlord Riverside has pledged its support to a national campaign to raise awareness and promote responsibility around carbon monoxide detection and fire safety.

The Safe as Houses campaign was launched by Inside Housing following the tragic fire in at the Lakanal House tower block in London, which resulted in six people dying, including three children.

Inside Housing hopes to dramatically reduce the likelihood of future tragedies by asking 100 social landlords to support the introduction of three simple steps to stop preventable deaths from gas and fire:
• change building regulations to require carbon monoxide detectors to be fitted in new homes with gas appliances;
• provide emergency procedure notices in all corridors of high-rise blocks; and
• develop a national database of tower blocks and their most recent fire risk assessments.

Deborah Shackleton, Chief Executive of Riverside, said: “We are committed to improving our homes so they are decent, modern and warm and managing places so they are cleaner, greener and safer.

“We have already fitted 5,500 carbon monoxide detectors to our existing stock and will install a further 5,000 from April 2010. Carbon monoxide detectors have also been added to our new build specification. We are pleased to support Inside Housing’s campaign.”

For more information visit www.insidehousing.co.uk/safeashouses.