Hard-up council tenants in Harborough have been left freezing and unable to pay their bills - and a councillor is demanding action to stop this

Hard-up council tenants in Market Harborough have been left freezing because they couldn’t afford to pay their heating bills as the country suffered its coldest winter for three years.

The social housing residents have had nowhere near enough cash help from Harborough council to stay warm as temperatures plunged below zero in the last fortnight, says Cllr Barbara Johnson.

And the furious Liberal Democrat councillor is now calling on the district council to compensate tenants immediately and launch an urgent investigation into the heating support “scandal”.

“I feel very strongly about this.

“I am so angry that vulnerable people right here in Market Harborough have had to go cold during our biggest Arctic blast for years,” Cllr Johnson told the Harborough Mail.

“How can it be right that some of us are still forced to choose between eating and heating in 2021?

“These poor people couldn’t afford to both heat their homes and fork out for food at the same time.

“It’s totally immoral and it’s unacceptable.”

The councillor for Logan ward in Market Harborough is now filing a question to the full council meeting on Monday February 22 demanding urgent answers.

“As a ward councillor, I was astounded recently to learn that some social housing tenants locally have been struggling - for some time now - to pay their disproportionately high heating bills.

“I cannot begin to understand how this came about, but can only supply the details in the hope that something can be done to correct this issue.

“Tenants’ pleas to our council have only resulted in the occasional supplementary payment of £50 when in fact more effective action should have been taken to reduce their bills,” Cllr Johnson tells the council.

“A £50 payment does not go anywhere near addressing their concerns.

“These vulnerable residents stress over their inexplicably high energy bills and suffer extreme fuel poverty as a result.

“They simply cannot make ends meet, despite their best efforts to pay their fuel bills.”

Chairman of the council for 2019-20, Cllr Johnson says that Resident A lives in a flat with two storage heaters, operating for two hours only per day (one hour in the morning, one hour in the evening).

“They have a single ring cooker, a microwave, a small fridge and a television (no washing machine) for which he was charged £345 by the energy supplier for electricity for a five-week period.

“During this period a payment of £50 was credited to the meter by HDC (Harborough District Council).

“The occupant was charged for the remaining £295.

“The accommodation appears to be insufficiently insulated and the storage heaters appear less than efficient.

“Resident A receives £409.89 Universal Credit monthly, of which the majority was spent on heating his flat.

“Resident A advised that he is aware that the two other residents currently in flats within the same block have also experienced similar problems.

“They also report that their meters are consuming vast amounts of money in return for little heating.

“They have resorted to turning their heating off for most of the time.

“It is my understanding that these residents are also in receipt of Universal Credit,” says Cllr Johnson.

“It is worth noting that the current Universal Credit rate for those under 25 is paid at the significantly lower rate of £342.72 per month.”

She says the council would have signed a “specific energy contract” with energy supplier BULB.

“BULB’s website quotes around £64 a month for a three-bedroomed house, so I am at a loss to understand the above charges.

“There appears no rational explanation why there should be so much variation in a company’s charges,” insists Cllr Johnson.

“Neither too are these tenants eligible for ‘warmer homes discount’ as the energy account is registered under the name of Harborough District Council.

“My question is: In the interests of openness and transparency, can I be assured that there will be an immediate district-wide investigation by Harborough District Council which, if this confirms that tenants have been over-charged, should trigger retrospective payments to those who have suffered under this burden, together with an assurance to tenants and council that any necessary reduction to these fuel payments will be urgently put in place?”

A council spokesman told the Mail: “A response to Cllr Johnson’s question should really be given by councillors at the council meeting.

“We can then issue a statement after the meeting.”