A Peckham resident is furious that the council will take ten days to replace a copper pipe that “every Tom, Dick and Harry in London sells” – leaving him without gas in the meantime.
Disabled 65-year-old Peter Nandwani of the Southampton Way Estate has since been forced to take freezing showers and eat microwavable meals.
The retired taxi driver and bar owner said: “Never in my whole lifetime have I seen such nonsense and stupidity in a modern city like London.
“I told council staff it is only a 4” common copper pipe that every Tom, Dick & Harry sells in London and everywhere in the world.
“I’m happy to supply the part needed myself. It is a small job. I don’t even need an engineer. Anyone, including me, can do this job. It would take five minutes!”
Peter says two engineers visited his flat on Tuesday, April 25 to conduct an annual gas safety check.
To his surprise, they informed him he had a gas leak and that they would need to shut down his gas supply.
Southwark Council then told Peter the problem would not be fixed until Friday, May 5.
Peter, who has his own soldering kit, says he asked the council if he could do the repair himself but they said no.
Southwark Council has supplied two fan heaters in the meantime.
“If anyone can explain to me how to cook and have a hot shower using fan heaters it would be highly appreciated,” Peter said.
Peter believes that outsourcing council repair jobs to private contractors is to blame for what he sees as a lengthy and unnecessary delay.
“Across the country, outsourcing is costing councils loads,” he said. “It’s madness the way they are spending public money”.
In 2018, Southwark Council committed to bringing its housing repairs service in-house but jobs requiring specialists like heating and external repairs are still passed to private contractors.
Councillor Stephanie Cryan, then cabinet member for housing, said at the time: “Service delivery by large external contractors has been variable and contractors often struggle to meet the council’s performance targets.”
Since the News got in contact, engineers have completed the repair and heating has been restored to Mr Nandwani’s home