Leaseholders are complaining they are being “held hostage” by soaring heating and hot water bills that far exceed those of council tenants living in the same-sized properties.
On the Brandon Estate in Kennington, costs for leaseholders’ two-bedroom properties are expected to hit £2,960.18 compared to just £1,377.48 for tenants in the same-sized properties, according to the Tenants’ and Residents’ Association Chair Tom Lloyd, who said leaseholders were being “held hostage”.
Meanwhile, two separate leaseholders on Havil Street, Camberwell, said their heating and hot water bill forecasts had risen to £4,089.50 and £4,497.92 respectively.
They did not know what council tenants on their block were expected to pay.
According to Southwark Council documents, all flats get billed for their heating based on the number of rooms they have.
An easy guide to the energy bills support available for Southwark residents
But the council has now told the News the discrepancy between tenants and leaseholders is because leaseholders pay for boiler maintenance the cost of which, along with energy, has sky-rocketed.
Tom Lloyd said some leaseholders are so furious that they are considering mounting legal action against the council.
But Southwark Council said it was doing everything it could to lobby the government to pass energy costs from residents on to energy companies.
In October, the government announced its energy price guarantee which stipulated that the average household would pay £3,000 for energy from April 2023, up from £2,500 currently.
But Daniella Palmer, 30 an NHS project manager, who lives at the Havil Street block in Camberwell, says her forecasted heating bill has risen from an estimated £2,160 last year to £4,680 this year for her one-bedroom flat.
She and her partner George Gestico, a 33-year-old cheesemonger, have also been landed with a separate £17,000 major works bill.
Column: ‘Are leaseholders getting the support the government has given on energy bills?’
Daniella said: “It’s a 200 per cent increase which other people on the estate are saying is quite hard to reconcile with the rate of inflation… If anything else were to go wrong, we’ve got nothing.”
Christian Landles, 45, also of Havil Street said his forecasted hot water and heating bill was £4089.50, up from the £1,401.77 he paid last year.
A senior research fellow at University College London, he said he is not sure how he will afford the rise, along with a £22,400 major works bill that he is expecting next year.
“For pensioners who aren’t earning any money – I do not see how some people are gonna come up with this money, he said.