Bolton at Home: Tenants warned that energy bills set to soar

Residents at Bolton at Home who use communal boilers said that they had received letters telling them that their bills could increase from around £13-14 per week to as much as £70 to £80.

The group provides homes for some of the most vulnerable people in the borough and tenants say they are alarmed by the huge increase.

Resident Marian Skillen, 78, who lives in flat on Purcell Close, Halliwell uses a communal boiler with two other flats.

She said: "The idea of a communal boiler is meant to protect pensioners, which at the time was quite laudable.

Bolton at Home's Waters Meeting Road head office (Image: NQ)

"But the problem is you've got no control, it doesn't matter how economical you are with your heating, and I'm quite an evironmentally minded and green person, you're going to be paying £70 a week.

"It just seems inequitable that we haven't got any control over the cost of our heating."

She added: "We here about how other people have problems and we hear horror stories about energy prices on the radio but a five fold increase seems massive."

The housing group has confirmed that prices will indeed be going up as of April this year where tenants using communal boilers are concerned.

Around 1,000 Bolton at Home households pay service charges for communal boilers, including atround 600 sheltered housing customers, 300 general let households and 60 leaseholders. 

But officials have insisted insisted that it is simply not possible to continue absorbing the ever mounting costs of energy, which have been in effect all over the country

Marian Skillen (Image: Newsquest)

Bolton at Home executive director of finance Edward Mellor said: “We’re doing everything we can to help keep energy cost increases to a minimum for customers.

“It’s just not possible for us to continue to absorb the large increase in supply costs to run communal boiler systems in certain properties at current levels without passing some of this increase on to customers.

“This would likely see their energy bills becoming comparable to households with individual boilers from April.”

Bolton has already been afflicted by high levels of fuel poverty (Image: PA)

Bolton at Home has tried to mitigate the effects this could have on tenants by giving them the option of only raising bills to between £50 and £60 a week if they cut down on heating hours.

Tenants will be surveyed on whether they would be prepared to take this option to try and keep bills down, while Bolton at Home also has a range of services available to help people who may be struggling.

But the price hike is still likely to hit tenants hard, with Bolton already afflicted by high levels of fuel poverty.

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Mr Mellor said: “We’ve written to all affected customers before introducing any changes, to invite their views on how we manage their communal heating systems and to see if they would rather we provided heating differently where they live for a smaller increase in charges. 

“This isn’t about taking away heating but looking at potential ways to minimise costs for customers while ensuring they still have comfortable temperatures at home.  

“We always urge customers with money worries to contact us for support, and more information about this consultation on communal heating charges is available on our website.”