‘Too extreme’: homeowners each face £33,000 council bill to replace communal heating system

Joy Bailey says the broken heating system at Jessop Court affected her ‘quite badly’. Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer

Last winter was particularly difficult for Joy Bailey. Living in a block of flats where the aged communal heating system had broken down, she contracted shingles and constantly felt a chill. “My hands were cold all the time from using cold water,” she says.

Now Bailey and other homeowners in the north London flat complex face the prospect of bills amounting to almost £33,000 each to fix the heating system, even though they claim the job can be done for a fraction of the cost.