Legionella Risk Assessment Manchester
For your business and your wellbeing
Legionella Risk
Assessments
If you’re responsible for a building in Manchester, a Legionella risk assessment is how you show your water systems are safe and your legal duties met. It’s work Concept Environmental’s LCA-accredited assessors carry out across the city every week, and a task we take seriously. Operating from our regional office in Manchester city centre and backed by more than 90 years of combined experience, we provide duty holders with a clear, defensible view of where their risk sits and what to do about it. From a single office to a build-to-rent portfolio, every assessment is scoped to the building in front of us and written to be acted on. Call 01606 597 074 or request a quote to book yours.
What We Can Do...
Professional Services provided by Concept Environmental Solutions Limited
What is a Legionella risk assessment?
Think of a Legionella risk assessment as a full health-check of the water in your building. A competent assessor traces the system from end to end including storage, heating, distribution and every outlet, and judges where conditions might allow Legionella bacteria to take hold. It’s carried out to BS 8580-1, the British Standard that defines what a competent assessment looks like, so the methodology is recognised and stands up to scrutiny.
Legionella is naturally present in water and only becomes a problem when it multiplies, which it does in stagnant water held roughly between 20 °C and 45 °C, particularly where scale or sediment build up. Anywhere water can escape as a fine, breathable spray — such as showers, taps, cooling towers and spa pools — raises the stakes.
The assessment pinpoints those weak spots, grades them and tells you what to tackle first.
Who needs a Legionella risk assessment in Manchester?
The responsibility for controlling Legionella risk falls to the duty holder. This could be the employer, landlord, building owner or managing agent in control of the premises, and it applies right across the sectors. A few Manchester property types recur, though.
The build-to-rent towers around Deansgate and Salford Quays, with their shared risers and amenity floors, carry particular responsibilities, as do the city-centre hotels and restaurants of the Northern Quarter and Spinningfields, where guest rooms and spa facilities add complexity. The universities, hospitals and care homes of Greater Manchester run large, often older water networks that need close attention, and so do the offices and laboratories of the surrounding science and tech estate.
Leisure adds another layer, as swimming pools, spa pools and cooling towers are higher-risk systems that always fall within scope. And for residential landlords, the duty holds whether you let one flat or a thousand, you must assess and control the Legionella risk in the systems your tenants rely on.
Legal requirements and compliance
Several pieces of legislation combine to make Legionella control a legal duty rather than a choice. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places the general obligation on employers and anyone in control of premises, and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) require hazardous substances, Legionella included, to be properly controlled. The "how" comes from the HSE’s Approved Code of Practice L8 and its technical companion HSG274 Parts 1 to 3, while the assessment itself is carried out to BS 8580-1:2019.
In practice, the duty holder is responsible for making sure a suitable assessment exists and that its recommended controls are put in place and kept up. An assessment should be reviewed at least every two years and sooner if the water system, its use or the building’s occupancy changes.
Neglect these duties and the HSE can issue enforcement notices or, in serious cases, prosecute. But the more pressing reason to keep on top of them is the safety of everyone who uses the building.
Our Legionella risk assessment process in Manchester
From first call to final report, we keep things clear and low-disruption.
- Scoping the job: We talk through your site, its water systems and any existing records, so the survey is properly targeted before anyone arrives.
- The site inspection: An experienced assessor works through the whole system. This includes incoming supply, storage, calorifiers, distribution pipework and outlets, by logging temperatures, conditions and anywhere water can stagnate or form an aerosol.
- Schematic and asset register: We map your system and list its assets, giving you an accurate reference for ongoing management as well as the assessment.
- Your written report: You receive a clear, risk-rated report to BS 8580-1, with findings and a prioritised action plan written in plain language.
- Putting it right: Where remedial action is needed, our own teams can deliver it. Whether that’s water sampling, TMV servicing, temperature monitoring, tank cleaning, chemical descale and remedial works, so you’re not chasing several contractors.
Because every stage is handled in-house from our city-centre office, we move quickly, and we typically return your written report within five working days of the survey.
Why choose Concept Environmental in Manchester
Appointing Concept means appointing a contractor your auditors and insurers will recognise. We’re LCA-accredited and a BSRIA member, with UKAS, BESA, SafeContractor, CSCS and ARMA accreditations standing behind every assessment.
That sits on real depth with more than 90 years of combined experience, over 60 specialists and four UK offices, so your work never rests on a single, overstretched individual. As part of the Celnor Group, we can bring wider environmental and compliance expertise to bear when a project calls for it.
And with our Northern Regional Office in the city centre, Manchester clients get genuinely local people and a fast response, backed by national resources.
Northern Regional Office: Neo Bruntwood SciTech, 1st Floor, 9 Charlotte Street, Manchester, M1 4ET. For more information call 01606 597 074.
Areas we cover across Manchester
Our base in Bruntwood SciTech sits right in the middle of our patch. Day to day, our assessors are on sites across Manchester city centre, Salford and Trafford, out to Stockport, Bolton, Oldham and Rochdale, and up through Bury, Tameside, Wigan and Altrincham. We are also within easy reach into Cheshire, Lancashire, Merseyside and beyond. Build-to-rent residential, city-centre hospitality and the surrounding science and tech estate make up much of that work, and multi-site clients across the North West get one consistent, accredited provider. Outside this list? Get in touch as we travel beyond the core patch.
Our Manchester office
Neo Bruntwood SciTech, 1st Floor, 9 Charlotte Street, Manchester, M1 4ET
Tel: 01606 597 074
Our Northern Regional Office is based in Bruntwood SciTech, in the heart of the city’s science and tech quarter. It anchors our work across Greater Manchester and into Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside, and suits the build-to-rent, hospitality and sci-tech clients clustered nearby. With assessors based in the city, we can reach most Manchester sites quickly, often within 24 to 48 hours for urgent enquiries.
When was your system
last checked & tested?
Let us do your thinking on your behalf...
Everyone loves a ‘lightbulb moment’ and at Concept our aim is to come up with the ideas and the solutions so that our clients can focus on other areas in the knowledge that what we are doing is having a positive effect.
Water Treatment Plant & Mechanical Services
There are numerous reasons for needing to improve water quality be it for healthcare, aesthetics or improved performance of systems. Concept specialise in reverse osmosis, water softening, UV filtration and chemical dosing plants to help you achieve your goals as far as water quality is concerned.
Air Hygiene
The quality of the air we breathe is not always given the attention it deserves. We maintain internal building ventilation, extract & access systems and monitor indoor air quality
Legionella Awareness Training
Our online courses provide RoSPA accredited basic legionella training providing an excellent foundation for controlling legionnaires disease.
Fire Safety
Fire safety should always be at the forefront of anyone responsible for health and safety in the working environment.
Our Accreditation’s and Memberships
We believe in the integrity of standards and rigor of the certification process. That’s why it’s our policy to achieve accreditation for our services wherever possible.
Legionella FAQs
Yes. The duty applies UK-wide, Manchester included. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and COSHH 2002 require anyone in control of a building with a water system to assess and control Legionella risk, and a documented assessment, in line with the HSE’s ACOP L8, is how you prove it. For virtually all commercial premises, it’s effectively mandatory.
There’s no fixed expiry, but at least every two years is the accepted benchmark. You should also reassess sooner if something material changes such as the water system is altered, the building’s use or occupancy shifts, or new information about a risk emerges. Regular review keeps your controls matched to the building as it actually is, not as it was.
It’s priced to the building, not at a flat rate. The size and layout of your site, the number of water systems and outlets, and how the premises are used all feed into it. For example, a small office sits well below a hotel or care home. After a short scoping conversation we’ll give you a clear, no-obligation quote. Call 01606 597 074.
Yes. Build-to-rent operators and HMO landlords are duty holders for the water systems in their buildings, so the obligation to assess and control Legionella risk applies exactly as it does to commercial premises. The shared risers, communal plant and amenity spaces common in larger residential schemes can add complexity, which is all the more reason to have a properly scoped assessment. We work with residential landlords right across Manchester.
Our assessors are trained, experienced water hygiene specialists working to the competency expectations in ACOP L8 and BS 8580-1. As a business we hold LCA accreditation, the Legionella Control Association which is the recognised UK body for water hygiene providers, alongside BESA, UKAS, SafeContractor and CSCS. The person on your site knows precisely what they’re looking for.
Yes. We assess and support all three through our leisure-sector work. Because they generate aerosols and run at temperatures that can suit bacterial growth, they need particular care. Beyond the assessment we can provide the sampling, monitoring and remedial support to keep them safe and compliant.
Request a free site survey
Put your compliance on a firm footing. For a Legionella risk assessment in Manchester that’s thorough, clearly reported and handled by a local team, talk to Concept Environmental. Call 01606 597 074 or request your free site survey.
Tailored solutions for water and air hygiene