Lambeth council tenants ‘in precarious position’ after 350% service charge rise

theguardian.com:

P eter Shapcott is sitting in his council flat in Brixton, south London. As he examines the bills that have come out of his bank account, he hovers his computer mouse over a screen showing how much money is left. The 67-year-old, who is terminally ill, has been paying his rent through credit in his account from overpaid water bills. He has £300 left, and now he must fund a steep hike in the service charge.

From April, his weekly payments for rent and communal services such as heating, hot water and maintenance have risen from £153 to £214, leaving him scrabbling to find an extra £61 a week. The spike is being driven by a big increase in energy costs.

Shapcott is one of an estimated 480,000 households nationwide occupying a flat where the heating and hot water come from a central boiler. Many buildings served by one of these heat networks are council tower blocks, which house some of the lowest-income families in the country.

Their energy is bought in advance, so the rise in gas prices last autumn after the invasion of Ukraine is only filtering through to bills this financial year. And the £400 given to every household to cushion the increase last winter is not on the table for next winter. Shapcott lives in Southwyck House, a Lambeth council block with a communal boiler. The heating charge for his two-bedroom flat is rising from about £11 to £37 a week – a 236% increase. Hot water will go from £3.57 to £12.60 a week. He receives housing benefit, but this doesn’t cover heating and hot water. The rest of the extra money will have to come from his pension. About 3,500 people in Lambeth-run estates are in the same position. Many are facing service charge increases of £240 to £300 a month – a 350% rise. The Labour-controlled