Our approach to Coronavirus: Monday 6 April 2020

This page will be updated daily to provide one place for you to access information about how we are managing the coronavirus and are keeping you, our colleagues and the general public safe.

Please take a look at our FAQ for the latest information and before you contact us

Monday 6 April 2020

For the safety of you, your family and our colleagues our offices are currently closed and we are only providing critical care services.

As the risk of spreading the coronavirus grows we want to keep all our customers and colleagues as safe as possible. We are following advice from the government to delay the spread of the virus, minimise risk to you and to make sure the NHS can cope with demand during this time. Therefore we made the difficult decision to close our offices on Thursday 19 March and from Wednesday 25 March will only be carrying out critical care services.

We understand that this is a very uncertain time and you may have lots of questions and concerns. To help, our customer experience team is available to support you and will be able to offer you advice and guidance on things like accessing benefits, how to self-isolate safely and other support groups that are available.

You can also find most of this information in our FAQs so please take a look at these before contacting us.

What are critical care services?

• Gas servicing (under review)
• Significant water leaks such as flooding of the property, ingress, burst pipes etc
• Electrical outages including full loss of power to part of or a whole building
• Gas leaks - If you smell gas contact National Grid Gas (Transco) immediately on 0800 111 999.

For our most vulnerable customers, we may also be able to support with loss of hot water or loss of heating but these will be considered on a case by case basis, according to the risks.

If we are attending your property to deal with a critical repair and want to carry this out in the safest way possible. To do this, we will be wearing full personal protective equipment to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. We will then dispose of this safety after we complete your repair.

When we enter your home to carry out the work we ask that you and anyone else in your home moves to a different room in the property so that we can practice social distancing.

Yours, your family’s and our colleagues’ safety are our highest priority, and this is why we are taking such serious measures to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. We remain absolutely committed to our customers and to delivering critical services and we’ll continue to deliver these services for as long as we’re able to.

 What is the latest government advice?

To help prevent the transmission of coronavirus, keep an eye on the latest government and NHS advice and take care of yourself by:

• Stay indoors unless absolutely necessary
• The government says people should only leave their home for the following reasons:
  • Only shop for basic necessities such as food and medicine
  • One form of exercise a day, alone or with people you live with
  • For any medical need or to provide care or help to a vulnerable person – this includes moving children under 18 between parents’ homes
  • Key workers or those with children identified as vulnerable can continue to take them to school
  • Travel to and from work where work cannot be done from home (e.g. key workers)
• Wash your hands frequently using soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitising gel if soap is not available
• Keep a distance of at least two metres between yourself and other people
• Cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue or into your elbow
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth

If you think you have been in contact with someone who could have contracted the coronavirus visit the NHS 111 online website to find out if you need medical help and seek advice on what to do next.

If you have symptoms you must stay at home for seven days and anyone in your household must not leave your home for 14 days from the day the first person got symptoms.

If your symptoms deteriorate, then call the NHS on 111.

We will continue to keep you updated as much as possible as things develop. Please keep yourself, your family and your community safe at this uncertain time.