Too cold for elderly

• A RECENT letter (Price to pay for being warmer in winter than summer, January 29) is the second to state that 21C (70F) is quite hot enough for council tenants receiving communal heating. For the majority of healthy/

young/mobile people, this is true, but according to Help the Aged “the right temperature for living room and bedroom should be a constant 70-75F” for the 20-25 per cent of elderly and disabled citizens caught in this system. 

The lack of “individual heating controls” on 32 Islington council estates has been an argument that tenants’ and residents’ associations have pursued for many years but to no avail. Even during the Decent Homes upgrading, it was possible to put this right at minimal cost, but this was not considered important enough to remedy, whether it increased CO2 emissions or not. 

The “initial cause” – 75 per cent receiving heat they do not constantly need as opposed to up to 25 per cent not receiving enough heat to stay alive – has still not been dealt with except for the short-term reprieve during the cold spell.

This is not a one-size-fits-all situation and cannot be treated as such, except by Islington Council or Homes for Islington making “cuts” to apparently save money. 

However, the letter writers supporting cutting supply from 24 to 18 hours per day (for heat and hot water) should be aware that the captive 2,976 tenants and 1,127 leaseholders of these 32 estates are in fact already paying weekly costs of £8.95 (£465.40 a year), £9.66 (£512.72), £10.91 (£567.32), £12.84 (£667.68) or £15.44 (£802.88), according to bedrooms per flat, in addition to their other gas and electric quarterly bills, which clearly disproves “value for money”. 

Thankfully, I am not affected by a communal boiler system and have full control of the heating and hot water I require and use, but how many of the fit and healthy letter writers would be willing to pay these additional fees for something beyond their control as well as agree to a cut in service without a reduction in charges?  

HELEN CAGNONI
Federation of Islington Tenants’ Associations

IS there no end to residents’ misery under Spa Green’s district heating system. Even since Islington Council leader Councillor Terry Stacy intervened to switch on all district heating systems pending a review, so many residents, particularly the elderly and infirm, are feeling cold. 

There have been several outages of either heating or hot water or both this year and residents are already concerned about the reliability of the system. 

Another concern is that, even when the system is functioning, the heating is not as effective as it was before the recent £1.5million upgrade to heating distribution pipework and plant equipment. One resident who has lived in Spa Green since 1948 says she never had to have additional electric heating when the communal system was working, but she has had to use additional heating virtually every day since mid-December.

Unfortunately, a considerable number of residents, primarily senior citizens, are complaining of feeling “cold all the time, particularly at night”. As I have highlighted these to Homes for Islington (HfI), problems in dwellings where the temperatures were 18C or lower were identified and some individual issues have been improved. Even where HfI is happy with the heating, residents feel cold. I am informed that the system is designed to achieve a maximum of 21C and this leaves me concerned for the elderly and infirm. What does an aged person feeling cold do if the central heating has 21C as its maximum? 

I await an official response from Age Concern London to the issue of inadequate service provision for elderly residents. In respect of Spa Green’s 2009-10 heating season misery to date, residents are seeking refunds for services not delivered and an independent assessment of the £1.5million improvement works.

THOMAS COOPER
Estate manager, Spa Green estate, EC1

I HAVE lived on Spa Green estate for 30 years and in my view, this year we have received the worst heating service in that time. It’s a sad situation that in 2010, after upgrading single-glazing to double-glazing as part of a £6.2million Decent Homes programme and a £1.5million so-called upgrade of the heating pipework and plant, people are colder in their homes than 30 years ago, but obviously paying proportionately more. 

Why, after all this work in the last five years, are our homes more draughty than before with less effective heating, even on mild weather days? Does this sound like progress?

NAME SUPPLIED
Spa Green estate, EC1