Somerset West and Taunton Council implemented Gas Tag as part of its work to combat issues it was facing in accessing properties. The provider had highlight that one of the major problems it faced was demonstrating to tenants precisely when and why its team hadn’t been able to access the property. Gas Tag offered Somerset West and Taunton Council the opportunity to use technology to gather evidence of no-access. 

Gas Tag was installed in 2017 across a total of 4,500 homes. The team at Somerset West and Taunton Council procured the product as not only did help with combating no-access, it also gave the provider a great insight into engineer’s work, the level of compliance and use of best practice. 

Engineers now use the app to take a live, geotagged photo with a time and date stamp when they have not been able to access a property. This enables the council to show residents evidence that the team has not been able to access their home.

When engineers can access the property, they must touch their mobile device to the tag on the meter. This then starts the servicing process on the app and engineers must enter information as they complete the work. All the information is uploaded into the Gas Tag portal in real-time.

Rich Weisman, Property Investment Manager at Somerset West and Taunton Council, led on the project to implement Gas Tag.

Rich said: “When we come to booking in an appointment, the Gas Tag portal allows us to view the amount of access attempts that we required the last time it was serviced. This type of business intelligence allows us to adapt our approach to accessing each individual property.

“Gas Tag also gives us a level of compliance that we have not had before. Because every engineer has to follow the same step-by-step process to complete the job, you know they are following best practice.”

In the first six months of implementing Gas Tag, Somerset West and Taunton Council have made £55,000 savings.

Find out how Gas Tag can help your organisation making savings and tackle issues with no access, visit www.gastag.co.uk