Southwark tenants hit by 10 heating breakdowns a week for the last four years

By Roisin McCarthy, Local Democracy Reporter

Tenants in one borough have endured more than 2,000 winter heating shutdowns, many in freezing conditions, in the last four years, we can reveal.

Southwark Council has admitted to an average of almost 10 heating breakdowns a week since 2018, figures obtained by the South London Press show.

And now any leaseholders have been told they might have to contribute a crippling £30,000 to doing up boilers on some estates – even if they have opted to heat their flats on their own independent central heating.

Between January 2018 and November 2021, a total of 1,985 heating outages were recorded in Southwark, according to data released following a freedom of information (FOI) request.

Since the start of 2022, a further 46 heating service outages have occurred, according to ‘communal breakdowns’ recorded on the council’s website.

The data also shows that 15 heating service outages are scheduled to take place between 11 – 28 February. Each outage reported often covers multiple buildings and properties, meaning the number of people impacted by each heating service failure often runs into the hundreds.

Residents shared their exhaustion and anger at the council after years of enduring days without any hot water or heating.

Adem*, an NHS worker who has lived on Aylesbury Estate for 25 years, said: “I’ve lost count of the number of interruptions there has been to the heating system. We only have single glazed windows that are rotten and mouldy because the council refuses to replace them. My family and I have regularly been left in freezing cold conditions for hours.

“As a tenant, I’m fulfilling all my obligations in paying rent, so why can’t Southwark council do the same?”

Despite numerous attempts to find a solution, Adem says he has been ignored. “They just pretend as if we don’t exist,” he added. “All I’m asking for is the basic living standard, but the council has just washed their hands of us.

“Most people I know are really frightened of the council. My neighbours and I have spoken about taking joint action but people are too scared to act because of what the council might do. But just because they won’t speak out, doesn’t mean the problem isn’t there.”

Southwark council is the largest social landlord in London and owns a third of all housing in the borough. It supplies heating and hot water to 17,000 homes via a district heating network (DHN).

These heating systems are designed to cut emissions and costs for households, however, Southwark Council has previously admitted that its systems are not of a good standard and in need of modernisation.

A council report released last year estimated that £350 million would be required to renovate the poorly designed systems, some of which date back to 1960.

Nicky Adeboga, a finance manager who has lived in Otterburn House in Camberwell since 2018, said: “For the past few years my life has been totally disrupted – I’ve lost count of the times we’ve gone without heating or hot water. It’s just constant. If there’s heating then you’re unlikely to have water and vice versa.

“No one from the council has ever contacted me to apologise or offer some kind of solution, and yet we’re expected to pay for bills and rent that go up every year. It’s relentless and it shouldn’t be happening in this day and age, but unfortunately the council is getting away with it.”

Following demands for compensation from tenants last year, the council agreed in April to award £3 each day a heating failure occurred.

But residents say this isn’t enough to cover electric heaters amid rapidly rising energy bills

For business owner Sabrina George, who has lived on Hillingdon Street since 2013, the only option left was to disconnect from the DHN. She said: “I decided to come off the heating system, and since then my costs have reduced significantly. Before then the situation was unbearable. At one point we had six weeks without any hot water and heating. I had numerous inspectors come round, but no solution was ever found.”

Sabrina added: “Now, the council is saying that they expect each leaseholder who is part of the communal system to pay £30,000 to replace the boilers. I’ve spoken to so many people who are extremely upset about this.

“I just hope that the other tenants take action but many are very frightened of the council.”

Southwark council’s cabinet member for council homes Cllr Stephanie Cryan, said: “We are working to replace and upgrading nine plant rooms, across the Aylesbury Estate. This will help us to regulate and manage any problems better and faster, moving forward. The plant rooms will be ready by August.

“During the pandemic, we helped homeless people who were in need of emergency accommodation. Many of these people said that they wanted to stay in Southwark, so we invited them to the Aylesbury Estate. Opening up more homes to help these people put pressure on the already overworked heating systems at the estate. However, our work to fit new boilers to fix this problem is almost complete and they will be ready by the end of March.

“We are also working to replace and upgrade nine plant rooms, across the Aylesbury Estate. This will help us to regulate and manage any problems better and faster, moving forward. The plant rooms will be ready by August.

“Additionally, we have one of the largest heat networks in the UK, with approximately 2,650 homes connected to our SELCHP district heating system. “This is powered sustainably, using heat from SELCHP. The plant turns waste into heat and energy, diverting it away from landfill. We are working to add new addresses to the network

“We also have a new Heat Network Strategy, which sets out how we plan to replace and upgrade our wider communal heating networks.”

 

Pictured: Aylesbury Estate
Graphs: Southwark Council heating outages 2022 By Roisin McCarthy on 10 Feb 2022