Residents on the Rouel Road Estate in Bermondsey have suffered “disturbing” and “upsetting” heating and hot water outages for over four years, Southwark Council has been told.
Local Labour councillor Cassandra Brown said residents had been “let down” by the council at the housing scrutiny meeting on Tuesday, February 6.
Tenants and leaseholders recounted “dreadful” experiences – including cold rooms “drenched” with condensation amid -2 degree temperatures.
‘We’ve been freezing at home for four months’ say tenants on Bermondsey estate
Southwark’s Cabinet Member for Council Homes said the council had already invested in Rouel Road’s heating and that it would “continue to work for improvements” on the estate.
Residents have reported outages since 2016, with evidence suggesting saying they worsened after contractor BSW installed a new system in April 2020.
Estate tenant Karen Gregory, 72, said that during one outage in December it was “-2 outside”.
She said she awoke “at midnight to find our bed drenched with water and condensation literally streaming down the walls because of the freezing cold flat next door”.
Fellow resident Robert Randalls said, that since April 2020, his family had often been forced to use fan heaters.
He said the situation was complicated by the fact that contractor OCO was in charge of in-property issues whereas BSW was responsible for the pump rooms.
“This obviously causes a lot of issues when one is saying it’s not their issue,” he said.
One leaseholder said she was being charged for “heating I don’t have” and was looking for compensation.
Estate resident Jerry Flynn said he’d received just £3.98 compensation after prolonged outages.
This is despite Southwark Council’s compensation policy being automatic £3 payments per day of outage.
Southwark News has repeatedly reported on outages facing Rouel Road. In 2021, this paper reported that tenants were left without constant heating for four months, including over the Christmas period.
Labour’s Cllr Barrie Hargrove said the situation was “disturbing and upsetting” and that he’d “heard it so many times”.
Speaking at the meeting, Labour councillor Leo Pollak described the situation as a “fiasco”, adding that there was a sense that residents’ complaints were “not heard” by the council.
He suggested complainants were unfairly treated as if they were “easily aggravated” and prone to “exaggerating” their experiences.
A council officer’s report prepared especially for the meeting, which said outages were not “not widespread”, was also criticised.
Cllr Esme Hicks said it was “incongruent” with residents’ experiences while Cllr Victoria Mills described it as “light touch”.
Southwark Council told us it was satisfied with the report and that an updated version would be submitted at the next meeting.
Cllr Sarah King, cabinet member for council homes, said: “While investment into district heating at the Rouel Road estate has taken place, it is essential we provide reliable, affordable and sustainable heat to every resident.
“We know that anything less is not acceptable, and we will therefore continue to work for improvements.”
OCO and BSW were approached for comment.