Spot checks trigger estate-wide gas safety inspections – LEMB tells Loughborough residents to refuse entry to engineers

Residents of the Loughborough Estate have expressed shock and fear for their safety after the estate’s management board urged them to refuse entry to gas safety engineers. In a letter …

Jun 7, 2026 - 07:34

Spot checks trigger estate-wide gas safety inspections – LEMB tells Loughborough residents to refuse entry to engineers

Residents of the Loughborough Estate have expressed shock and fear for their safety after the estate’s management board urged them to refuse entry to gas safety engineers.

In a letter dated 5 June (see end of article) and delivered across the 1,200-home estate, the Loughborough Estate Management Board (LEMB) claims Lambeth ‘has neither the legal obligation nor the right’ to carry out gas safety checks, and urges residents to refuse entry to engineers.

The letter warns that allowing access will result in charges to the estate’s maintenance allowance, ‘which will negatively impact the provision of services.’

LEMB’s concern over the cost of the safety inspections is the latest indicator of an organisation in financial freefall. LEMB has faced two HMRC winding-up petitions in less than a year, while Lambeth’s own audit gave it the lowest possible rating – ‘No Assurance’ – finding no evidence of VAT returns being filed, alongside approximately £450,000 in questionable spending on gifts, foreign trips and petty cash.

Following a series of routine spot checks on the estate, the council has ordered urgent gas safety inspections in every property, warning of the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, gas leaks and fire.

Under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, the council, as landlord has a legal obligation to ensure annual gas safety checks are carried out in every tenanted property. Tenants remain tenants of the council regardless of any TMO arrangement, and the council remains legally responsible whether or not it delegates the work.

Loughborough Voices, the residents’ campaign group, wrote on Instagram yesterday:

“LEMB put residents’ safety at serious risk to avoid scrutiny and save their own skins.

This tells you everything about what residents have to suffer under this management.

What does it have to take for this TMO to be removed?”

– Loughborough Voices

Loughborough resident Alex, who has lived on the estate for twelve years, told Brixton Buzz he was thrilled to receive the council’s letter about the gas safety checks – then shocked when a letter from LEMB arrived urging him not to allow engineers into his home. “It sounded incredibly unsafe,” he said. “It didn’t make any sense.”

He described an estate where repairs go undone, every block has leaks, rubbish is left uncollected, and the community centre has been handed over to a shipping company.

Residents hear nothing from LEMB for months, he said, “then we receive weird letters” like this.

Brixton Buzz has contacted LEMB to ask if they will make their gas safety records and certificates public.

Lambeth Council urges all Loughborough Estate residents to allow access for gas safety inspections when contacted by their contractor OCO.

If you smell gas or suspect a carbon monoxide leak, call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999.