Lambeth increases the rent of council tenancies by £60-£75 PER WEEK

[edcraw]

Couple of pieces in the Guardian today about this.

UK households with communal heating facing 350% rise in energy costs

Surge in energy costs filtering through to low-income households on shared heat networks

www.theguardian.com

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

Price hikes of up to £300 a month for communal heating and hot water driven by rapid increase in energy costs

www.theguardian.com

 

[editor]

Latest news:

Lib Dems highlight disabled tenant’s desperate despair over Lambeth Labour’s heating charge hike

A disabled Lambeth resident is being forced to pay an extra £243.60 per month after Lambeth council doubled down on its decision to hike communal heating charges by 350 percent. Denise, a Lambeth t…

www.brixtonbuzz.com

 

[BusLanes]

Hopefully that helps her!

 

[wtfftw]

Tell us your experiences of communal heating price rises in the UK

If you use communal heating, we would like to hear your experiences of recent price changes

www.theguardian.com

 

[editor]

Good work by the Green Party here Green councillors support residents’ calls for Lambeth Council to help with 353% increase in their fuel bills

 

[Gramsci]

Good work by the Green Party here Green councillors support residents’ calls for Lambeth Council to help with 353% increase in their fuel bills

The thing I don't understand about this is that it appears that the increase is for all the year?

I'm a council tenant in street property. With gas ( mainly for heating plus gas oven) on pre pay meter

Over winter I was topping up a lot.

But now it's better weather Im hardly using any gas.

I really don't understand how this increase is all year round.

I also got the government automatic help with electricity and gas.

Surely the Council could have worked out way to reduce it during summer.

 

[Gramsci]

Another thing. Labour Councils like Lambeth always blame the Tories for their problems. Implication being that a labour government will change everything.

Starmer has ditched so many of his pledges plus Rachel Reeves keeps now saying she has to keep to fiscal rules that I doubt things will be better for hard pressed Council tenants when Labour get in

 

[editor]

The thing I don't understand about this is that it appears that the increase is for all the year?

I'm a council tenant in street property. With gas ( mainly for heating plus gas oven) on pre pay meter

Over winter I was topping up a lot.

But now it's better weather Im hardly using any gas.

I really don't understand how this increase is all year round.

I also got the government automatic help with electricity and gas.

Surely the Council could have worked out way to reduce it during summer.

Apparently not. Because they're fucking shit. Residents will have already used up their government help for their electric bills, but there's fuck all for us if you're on communal heating/gas.

 

[marty21]

The thing I don't understand about this is that it appears that the increase is for all the year?

I'm a council tenant in street property. With gas ( mainly for heating plus gas oven) on pre pay meter

Over winter I was topping up a lot.

But now it's better weather Im hardly using any gas.

I really don't understand how this increase is all year round.

I also got the government automatic help with electricity and gas.

Surely the Council could have worked out way to reduce it during summer.

Generally, with District heating systems they spread the cost over the year , they could, I guess, have huge weekly charges in the winter & lower in the summer but it would work out as the same charge overall.

 

[marty21]

Apparently not. Because they're fucking shit. Residents will have already used up their government help for their electric bills, but there's fuck all for us if you're on communal heating/gas.

Tenants on these systems have been forgotten, what they could have done is allow those charges to be eligible (or a percentage of them) for HB/UC rent element .

 

[Gramsci]

Generally, with District heating systems they spread the cost over the year , they could, I guess, have huge weekly charges in the winter & lower in the summer but it would work out as the same charge overall.

Im not expert on figures but it seems to me that Council tenants in district heating systems are paying an awful lot compared to me. I was struggling over winter but now what Im paying out has reduced dramatically.

I still think the deals the Council do with suppliers need more scrutiny.

This is after all Lambeth Council. The Housing Ombudsman has just put the Council on extra scrutiny due to fact they are so rubbish at organising anything. I dont trust the Council to make sure the deals it does keep prices down.

Way Lambeth works is whatever is easier to just agree they do and then move on. Leaving Joe public to deal with it.

 

[edcraw]

Moneybox on R4 is covering this scheme today. I don’t think it applied to residents with communal energy but seems similar and crap that there was no financial help.

Energy bill scheme staggering failure, says MP - BBC News

The scheme to help people who missed out on last winter's energy subsidy should be reopened, a senior MP says.

www.bbc.com