Residents of a Cardiff estate have hit out at a "scandalous" rise in utility costs which has left some fearing they will be unable to feed themselves. People living in St Clements Court, an over-55s complex containing 34 flats in Pentwyn, were told their heating and water bill would increase more than fourfold from £9.99 to £41.83 a week.
Shortly before Christmas, the housing association Wales & West told tenants that in 2023 they would be blanket-charged the weekly figure — which is not eligible to be claimed on benefits — regardless of their own consumption. WalesOnline contacted the housing association and was told there was then a U-turn as Wales & West said it would bill residents on individual use after all.
But no indication has been given that the total amount to be paid across the estate will drop — and tenants have been left "distraught" and "terrified" according to resident Christine Foulkes. The 76-year-old said many of the tenants are disabled and vulnerable, including her 85-year-old neighbour who broke down in tears when she saw the paperwork. "The last years of the old girl's life are going to be worrying incessantly about how she's got to pay this money," said Mrs Foulkes. "It's not right."
Part of the hiked charge is a "heating deficit" that Wales and West incurred last year and has now passed on to tenants. That comes to £8.95 a week — almost as high as the total heating and water bill from the previous year. One tenant, 58-year-old Derek Parson, said: "I've lived here two and a half years and I've had the heating on about five times. Why should I pay for something I don't use? Through the summer the housing association had the heating on in the corridors 24/7 and wasted so much money. I had to have a fan on all through the night."
Tenants who are not on benefits will also have to deal with a rise in eligible service charges — such as for cleaning and gardening — from £24.39 to £39.64 a week. In response to residents' complaints, Wales & West told WalesOnline it "fully understands" the energy concerns which "everyone in the country is experiencing". It says the increased bills are a proposal which has taken into account the support payments from the Government.
Mr Parson, a former truck driver who lives in a studio flat and is unfit for work due to disability, fears for his finances. "I already don't have a lot left each month," he said. "It's going to mean cutting back on food, even though I've got Type 2 diabetes and I have to be careful what I eat."
The dispute comes five years after the housing association told residents it was fitting "heat interface units" in each flat which would mean paying "only for the energy that you use". But the tenants have never been charged for individual use despite living in flats of different sizes — one of the flats has three bedrooms, eight have one bedroom and the rest are small studio flats.
Mrs Foulkes, a retired marketing director, said an engineer from a maintenance contractor told her two and a half years ago that Wales & West had not "connected" the system to read tenants' meters. "The engineer couldn’t understand why they weren’t independently billing us," she added. The meters only became readable around six months ago because, according to Wales & West, there had been "issues with accessing the data". And until last week's U-turn, the housing association had said it would continue blanket-charging because it only had data for "part of 2022".
The law states that unless there is an exemption, heat suppliers must use meter readings to bill customers on their own consumption. St Clements Court residents claim there is still no way for them to monitor their use because their meters are inaccessible. The housing association told WalesOnline that the UK Government regulator has "indicated that our actions to ensure bills are based on individual usage meet the rules".
Mrs Foulkes said some of her neighbours told her they are planning to move away because of the "scandalous" surge in costs. "The letters we received wrecked everyone's Christmas," she said. "They were really frantically worried. The bills should be commensurate with what Cardiff Council is charging at its properties. I've a brother-in-law in a three-bedroom council home and the bills come to £76 a month."
She added: "Right through the summer, this place was like Hades because the communal heating was on 24/7 and we couldn't turn it off. It was so bad, I had to have air-con on all through the summer."
A Wales & West Housing spokeswoman said: “We are fully compliant with heat metering regulations across all our properties with communal heating systems. We fully understand the residents’ concerns around the increases in energy prices which everyone in the country is experiencing. We did not increase these costs last autumn when the gas and electricity charges first went up and have absorbed much of the additional cost ourselves. The charge we are proposing has been capped and has taken into account the additional financial support payments from the Government."
Asked why it took so long to bill tenants for individual use, the spokeswoman said: "We have installed individual heat interface units and meters to the flats in St Clements Court. We have not been able to bill residents for their individual usage due to issues with accessing the data which has been resolved. We have met with the Office for Product Safety and Standards, the regulators, who have indicated that our actions to ensure bills are based on individual usage meet the rules. We expect written confirmation in the coming weeks."
She added: "When the bills [sent to residents before Christmas] were prepared we only had data for part of 2022 and we thought it fairest for the charge to be the same for every resident for the coming year until we had a complete year’s worth of data. Now we have more data we will update the bills to reflect the individual usage based on the information available to us."
Asked whether the total amount charged across the complex will remain the same as warned, and whether residents will still have to cover the same blanket "heating deficit" from last year, the spokeswoman said: "We will be discussing the charges and billing with all residents at St Clements Court when we meet with them at the end of the month. We will be writing to residents in the next day or so to set the meeting up." She added that specialist staff are supporting residents to "make sure they are accessing all the additional financial support that is available".
Wales & West manages more than 11,500 homes across Wales. You can read more of the latest news from across Wales here.
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