Thousands of homes in London's Olympic Park are locked in to doubling energy bills from today, and say the 2012 Olympic legacy is being tarnished.
Many of the properties were first built to house athletes and officials at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where Team GB won 65 medals.
The London 2012 Olympics is seen as one of the UK's greatest ever highlights, when national morale and sense of community was high.
But now the residents of the East Village and Chobham Manor regions, on the Olympic Park, say they feel let down by soaring energy bills they cannot switch away from.
All the properties in these developments have one energy provider, East London Energy (ELE), which has a contract to provide power for 40 years. Residents cannot switch.
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Now these households have had a letter from ELE saying their consumption charge is going up by 103% and the monthly standing charge by 4.63%, from today.
Olympic Park resident and councillor Nareser Osei has been representing the two communities in the energy bill battle.
She said: "Residents are effectively powerless. There's a lack of understanding, some people are struggling to make the payments and are not even able to try switching to a better deal.
"We all expect energy bills to go up, but for the consumption charge to more than double, that is quite disturbing.
"We are 10 years past the Olympic Games and this is not a good legacy to have."
Households are facing eye-watering rises on energy bills from today as the maximum amount firms can charge people on default tariffs is rising by an average of £693.
Osei added that many residents feel overlooked by ELE, who can be slow to respond - in some cases leaving homes without hot water.
Homes in the Chobham Manor development have no access to their meters, and have to get building service staff to give them even simple meter readings.
A spokesperson for East London Energy said: “Owing to the large spike in wholesale energy prices, everyone in the country is faced with the challenge of increased heating bills.
"Where consumers using the grid are bound by variable rates and expect to see an additional spike in October, residents on ELE have a fixed price for a year.
"We fully appreciate this is a difficult time for our customers and will continue to work closely with our partners to offer the best possible prices during this difficult period.”
The Team GB medal haul in 2012 was the best performance by a host country in more than 100 years.
The 2012 games also saw cyclist Chris Hoy become the UK's most successful Olympian with his fifth and sixth gold medals, until he was surpassed by fellow cyclist Jason Kenny in 2021.
