Gas hotspot map shows Birmingham as most unsafe city
The main feature of the launch is an interactive gas map that identifies the most dangerous postcodes in the country. The map reveals how many unsafe gas appliances have been found in an area, how many unregistered gas fitters have been active and how many gas incidents and emergencies occurred.
The data found that one in six homes – the equivalent of 4.28 million households – had an unsafe gas appliance. The map also pinpoints over 120,000 unsafe gas incidents attended by the national gas emergency networks including National Grid, Northern Gas Networks, Scotia Gas Networks and Wales &West Utilities.
Birmingham was identified as the most unsafe city, with the highest number of homes found with dangerous gas appliances – more than one in three households were unsafe (34%). This was closely followed by Cardiff (31%), Edinburgh (31%), Norwich (28%) and Ipswich (28%).
In comparison, Brighton is the safest city, with just one in 20 (5%) homes found to be dangerous. This is followed by Liverpool (6%), Southampton (6%), Northampton (7%) and Hull (8%).
The map also identifies 3000 illegal gas jobs investigated by Gas Safe Register since 2010, of which 61% were unsafe and one in five were so dangerous that the Register had to turn off the gas appliance immediately.
Since 2010, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued 41 improvement notices, 204 prohibition notices and carried out 96 prosecutions.
The data also reveal that gas fires are the most dangerous gas appliances in the home. One in three gas fires checked by the Register were unsafe, compared to one in 11 boilers and one in 13 cookers.
Russell Kramer, Chief Executive for Gas Safe Register, says: “Around 7.69 million households admit they’ve never had their gas appliances checked or maintained. This is despite eight in 10 people recognising that they should do it.This is why we have launched the gas map. It is the first time that data on unsafe gas appliances and illegal gas work has been compared across postcodes in Great Britain. We want people to realise that gas safety is something that they should take seriously and by bringing it to their doorstep it makes it harder to ignore.”
The interactive gas map allows users to type in their postcode to find out how safe or unsafe their area is and sign up for an annual gas safety check reminder.
Gas Safe Register hopes the map will help drive further business for engineers as it will encourage more people across the UK to hire qualified engineers.
Russell concludes: “This year 2500 industry supporters, from retailers and big energy companies to individual engineers have pledged their support. It’s thanks to them that we can hope to reach the 23 million UK gas consumers, encouraging them to use the gas map, sign up for an annual gas safety check reminder and always use registered engineers.”
