Consulting customers on communal heating service charges | News

If you pay us a service charge for heating provided by a communal boiler, please look out for an important letter from us inviting your views. It has an enclosed survey and a prepaid envelope for you to fill out and return to us by Tuesday 17 January 2023.  

Who we’re consulting and why 

We’re currently seeking the views of approx. 1,000 households who pay a service charge for heating provided by a communal boiler. This includes approx. 600 sheltered housing customers, 300 general let households and 60 leaseholders. 

Due to the significant increase in energy prices, we’re informing customers what they could pay from April 2023 and seeing if they’d rather we provided heating differently for a smaller increase in charges. 

Continuing to provide heating to these homes at current levels would increase costs for customers to an amount comparable to those with an individual boiler in their home. However, we recognise this comes at a time when other costs are also rising so we’re seeking views - on the number of hours the heating is on and the temperature - before we introduce any changes.  

If there is a majority view that the heating can be reduced during certain times, we’ll adjust communal boiler systems as appropriate and the increase in charges won’t be as large.  

In our properties that have communal boilers, the heating is generally provided for long periods each day because of the age of the boiler systems and the way they work. Before the recent energy crisis, the cost of doing this was manageable and we could absorb smaller increases. As energy prices have risen so sharply, we can’t continue to absorb them but we’d always look at potential ways to minimise costs for customers while ensuring they have comfortable temperatures at home.  

We’re asking customers to share their views with us over the next couple of weeks, using the pre-paid envelopes. Tenants living in some of our sheltered housing schemes can return their surveys via collection boxes on site. 

If you’ve received a letter and survey from us and have any questions, or if you haven’t received these and feel you should have, please speak with your sustainable tenancies advisor if you have one or phone us on 01204 328000 during office hours. 

We’ll keep customers fully informed of any proposed changes.   

Thank you. 

 

Privacy notice  

Our privacy notice explains how we manage your personal data. You can read it at www.boltonathome.org.uk/data-protection.

If you’ve any questions relating to your personal data, and our handling of it, please contact our Information Governance Team by email to IG@boltonathome.org.uk.

 

What can I do if I’m worried about rising energy bills and other costs that are going up?  

If you’re concerned about cost-of-living pressures and paying bills, please contact us as soon as possible and we’ll do what we can to help. 

Phone us on 01204 328000 and ask to speak with our Money Advice Team. Or email moneyadviceteam@boltonathome.org.uk.

Find more information on how we can support you at www.boltonathome.org.uk/money-advice-team.