Page 13 - Pobl Annual Report FY25

Annual Report 2025 11
Gas Safety
Gas safety performance has remained stable with the challenges of contractor capacity and no
access worked through in partnership with our two gas contractors.
The Group has continually explored new ways of working to improve the customer experience
and maintain very high levels of compliance. A successful initiative has been the introduction of
customer appointments 6 days a week, enabling us to tailor the work to customer demands and
changing expectations.
Welsh Housing Quality Standard
The introduction of the new Welsh Housing Quality Standard 2023 (WHQS 23) is driving progress
in the way we plan, fund, deliver and report improvements to the quality and energy efficiency of
our customers’ homes. Properties across the Group continue to comply with the previous WHQS
standards which were in place, and WHQS 23 provides a transitional window to September 2025
for data validation and alignment before updated compliance reporting under WHQS 23 begins.
Using £1 million of grant funding, we have taken significant steps on asset investment forecasting
capability by creating for each home its own holistic Property Investment Plan and Target Energy
Pathway. We have launched a major customer engagement and consultation project with Cardiff
Metropolitan University which will help us to shape and prioritise our future WHQS 23 programmes
by understanding what is most important to our customers and the way they live in their homes.
We have successfully concluded our Data Quality Improvement Plan to meet Welsh Government’s
comprehensive new WHQS 23 Stockographics and compliance reporting requirements for official
publication in Summer 2025. We have also taken the opportunity afforded by WHQS 23 grant to
complete a number of deep retrofit‐refurbishment projects during the year, focused on testing
innovative decarbonisation technologies.
In January 2025, Group Board approved our WHQS 23 Compliance policy, a key document that sets
out our interpretation and approach to meeting and maintaining the flagship regulatory standard.
As we move forward into next year, we have our sights set on future WHQS 23 milestones, in
particular a minimum SAP75 energy rating throughout our eligible housing stock by 2030.
Homes with damp and mould
We are committed to dealing with cases of damp, mould and condensation quickly and efficiently
to prevent customers from experiencing related health problems or damage to their home and
belongings. The Group provides advice to customers on how to identify and prevent damp and
mould build up in their homes. Across the Group, we raised 2,861 damp and mould orders with
an average completion time of 35 days.