This week I've spent a fair amount of time helping RBC tenants with heating problems. Yet again I think I've hit the tip of an iceberg.
Following my post last week about tenants who had received really shoddy service connected to the installation of central heating on Hadrians Walk East I have come across a number of other people in the ward who are in real difficulty.
This is a worry as we head deeper into winter. And it bothers me that more people are not doing something about it.
Out knocking on doors around Hexham Road recently tenants have been complaining bitterly about long waits for central heating. This is something many of us take for granted, but it is not yet universal.
So much for Labour's promise of "Decent Homes for all".
And yet these tenants are being asked to pay out more money in service charges to the Council when some basic services, like heating, are not being delivered by their landlord - the Council.
One tenant had received a letter in 2007 saying they would be getting central heating...it wasn't installed for two years.
I have been hassling RBC's housing department about these issues and the response I have been getting back is: not us 'guv - blame British Gas!
I wrote to the head of the department and the Lead Member, Cllr Edwards asking them to fight for a better service for local tenants. The response from Cllr Edwards was lacklustre.
It's hard to believe in this day and age, in a so-called 'boom town' like Reading, but a large number of RBC properties do not have 'live' gas supplies.
This means lots of residents are having to wait for ages for central heating to be installed.
I am trying to get hold of the figures but I think this could potentially affect hundreds of tenants across Reading.
As the experience of some RBC tenants living on Hadrian's Walk East shows there are also real questions about the quality of work done by some contractors working for British Gas installing central heating in RBC properties.
Thankfully I have managed to help some tenants out with their heating problems this week - including getting central heating installed in the flat of one tenant who is struggling with multiple health problems.
Leaving the obvious nuisance value aside, there are other important reasons why pressure needs to be put on Labour-run Reading to get heating in council properties right.
I am concerned that there are hundreds of people in our town who are technically in fuel poverty.
And the recession is making their lives even more difficult.
Save The Children launched a campaign recently to highlight the fact that some of of the poorest families in the UK could risk getting into debt this winter because of things like increased heating bills.
This means households where people are spending more than 10% of their income on heating their home.
In March of this year Lib Dem MP David Heath (Somerton & Frome) introduced a private member's hill which included plans to:
- Require the government to introduce a strategy to get every home in fuel poverty up to standard by 2016.
- Introduce social tariffs to cut fuel bills for the poorest families
Disgracefully, his Bill failed to make progress in the Commons due to lack of support by Labour and the Tory MPs.
Fuel poverty is a major issue in the private housing sector in Reading - particularly in East Reading where there is a high proportion of Victorian terraces which are not well-insulated.
However, the cost of insultatng these properties is putting off homeowners and landlords from doing it. So people are spending a lot of money heating draughty homes. Bad for them, bad for the planet.
But fuel poverty is also an issue for social housing tenants too.
I have been to visit to constituents in the past week - one in a housing association property (Huntley Court, Erleigh Road) and one on Hexham Road where it is pretty obvious that a lot of the heat...is going straight out of the window.
Literally.
RBC needs to prioritise insulating all it's properties and helping tenants to help them save money and save the Planet.
I am going to visit a pilot project in Whitley where the Council is attempting to address fuel poverty in RBC properties.
This work needs to be stepped up and made a priority across all RBC stock if we are going to help individuals in families out of fuel poverty.
Help get much needed action taken at a national level: visit the End Fuel Poverty website for more details.
UPDATE:
Even worse news as it is revealed this week that the Labour government's programme to tackle fuel poverty has run out of money leaving any estimated 32,000 people at risk.
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