UK households with communal heating facing 350% rise in energy costs
Residents in council homes and private flats with communal heating systems are experiencing a “nightmare” rise in their energy bills, with households scrambling to fund increases of up to 350%.
An estimated 480,000 households nationwide are affected, according to government data, as the impact of last autumn’s surge in energy prices filters through to bills for this financial year. Many live in council-owned tower blocks, which house some of the lowest-income families in the country.
MPs and local councillors said they were being contacted by distressed residents, and called on the energy watchdog, Ofgem, to intervene.
Apsana Begum, the Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse, said: “The cost of living scandal is having a devastating effect on our communities. I have constituents whose gas bills are being increased by 100% or more because they are on a heat network. This is clearly not acceptable.”
Simon Francis, the coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “A lot of people on heat networks are among the most vulnerable households. They deserve greater protection from the worst of the energy crisis, not least because they do not have the ability to switch supplier. It’s incredibly concerning to see these people facing huge increases to their bills.”
Buildings with heat networks tend to use energy bought in advance. This means the price rises experienced by most households last winter only started to affect buildings with communal heating last month, at the start of the new financial year. Meanwhile, the £400 given by the government to every household to cushion the blow last winter is no longer available.
Residents at the Bow Cross West housing association estate in east London said their heating bills had risen nearly
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