South London estate residents paying £1,000 more in heating bills than average

A town hall official has denied he mishandled residents’ concerns about problems with a heating system serving over 700 households that mean families are charged £1,000 more than average for their energy bills.

Tom Vosper, who is responsible for heat networks at Southwark Council, rebuffed suggestions his response to an investigation by leaseholders which showed their communal boiler system was using three times more gas than typical was incorrect.

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The high consumption means residents on the North Peckham estate were slapped with bills of over £2,500 for heating and hot water by the Labour-run council earlier this year. Unlike most households with individual boilers, residents on heat networks are not protected by energy regulator Ofgem’s price cap which currently limits bills to £1,568 for the typical household.

Speaking at a council scrutiny meeting on Wednesday, September 18, Mr Vosper admitted he responded ‘slowly’ to residents’ concerns but argued this was unavoidable due to the complexity of the matter. He said: “I think it was handled quite slowly but I wouldn’t say wrongly.

"We had to have multiple site visits, photographs of the meter and the corrector and then multiple meetings with the suppliers and meter asset manager. [...] I felt that I didn’t want to give a response to residents before going through that extensive system of checks.”

Mr Vosper added that the typical property on one of Southwark Council's around 100 heat networks used 19,000 kWh of gas annually, significantly higher than the 11,500 kWh of gas that Ofgem estimates the average three bedroom house with an individual boiler consumes in a year.

Explaining why this is the case, he said: “[It’s] simply because [of] losses in the boiler house, losses in the heat network. Often due to the fact they’re older heat networks which don’t have heat meters, the heat consumption in the dwellings can be higher as well.”

Councillor Sam Foster, chair of the housing scrutiny committee, said it was clear that the maintenance and management of heat networks had been neglected before the council published a heat network strategy three years ago. He added: “Prior to 2021 things should have been done that were not done and post 2021 we’re now in a phase of improving things.”

Max Templer, the resident who uncovered excessive gas consumption on the district heat network that supplies heating and hot water to his property, said he was pleased the council was finally admitting there was a problem.

He said: “I’m really glad to see that after years of stonewalling and denial Southwark are finally acknowledging the issues with the North Peckham district heating network. However, even when they are acknowledging the problems with the network, the council continues to minimise the severity of the issue.

“Based on the current usage of the network North Peckham is likely losing somewhere in the region of 65 to 80 per cent of the heat generated at the boiler house before it gets to people’s homes. This is indicative of decades of failure by the council to maintain these networks.

“Leaseholders should not be made to pick up the tab for council failure on this issue. The council needs to put a service charge cap in place to protect leaseholders from the excessive gas costs associated with networks like this. And the council’s leadership should also issue a formal apology for the years of under performance and spiralling costs they have subjected leaseholders to.”

Got a story? Email robert.firth@reachplc.com.

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