A Staffordshire-based housing association has agreed to install the Gas Tag system in 12,000 homes across Shropshire and Staffordshire.

All of the Group’s 12,000 homes will be fitted with technology that Barry Sheerman MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Carbon Monoxide, called "the most significant quantum leap in domestic gas safety compliance in 20 years".

Annual gas safety checks are a legal requirement for all landlords. However, with the current ‘locally stored’ method there is no standard way of managing this information, making monitoring very difficult.

“Keeping track of the paper trail for annual gas certificates, replacement boilers and new appliances for many homes presents a serious challenge for housing providers,” said Stephen Collins, Director of Property for Housing Plus Group, a housing association formed last year from the merger of Severnside Housing in Shropshire and Housing Plus in South Staffordshire.

A physical Gas Tag is placed in each property and tracks that all of the gas appliances, services and installations are carried out by Gas Safe-registered engineers.

Each engineer is able to evidence their competency and their completed job gets uploaded to a centralised portal where the data can be monitored. Illegal gas fitters are unable to access the Gas Tag app and are not able to carry out any work through the Gas Tag portal.

Mr Collins oversees compliance for over 12,000 homes including gas, fire risk assessments, asbestos, water and lift management. He said that “compliance should be at the heart of every housing provider”.

Paul Durose, Co-Founder and Chief Executive for Gas Tag, said: "We are excited to be working with such a forward-thinking company as Housing Plus Group, that clearly puts tenant safety at the heart of what they do. Our technology is an industry first and gives Housing Plus real-time data to monitor lifesaving gas safety checks.”