Lib Dems call for emergency funding to protect Lambeth’s vulnerable families from hiked heating charges

Earlier this month, a letter detailing the rent and service charges increase for residents from April 2023 was divulged to Brixton Buzz.

It has emerged that Lambeth gave council tenants just four weeks’ notice that their rent would increase by an average of £60 to £76 per week to absorb massive increases in service charges to cover heating and hot water. 

Lambeth Lib Dems argue that the charges are ‘unfair and unjustified’ so long as the council fails to install individual meters for households. “This is the opposite of green,” said Lambeth Liberal Democrat Council Group Leader, Councillor Donna Harris. “It’s just a stealth tax payable by all tenants and leaseholders regardless of how thrifty they are with energy use.”

Residents struggling to foot the bill for a massive surge in heating charges have been given ‘cold and disheartening’ advice by the council that they could “avoid paying the revised rent by ending their tenancy”. 

Cllr Donna Harris, Leader of the Lambeth Lib Dem Council Group, has written to Neil Euesden, Director of Housing, to demand that he:

• Launch an Emergency Fund funded by the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) to support vulnerable residents facing an impending hike in heating charges
• Apologise to residents for the council’s ‘cold and disheartening’ advice regarding the planned rent and service charges surge
• Conduct a review of the way the council decided to procure energy contracts up until now
• Answer why the council has suddenly decided to hike heating charges, which will hit low-income households the hardest.
• Implement a Lib Dem plan to spread out the increase in heating charges over several years to support low-income households
• Retrofit individual boilers, thermostats, timers and meters to encourage energy efficiency and ensure residents can turn their own heating on and off.

Commenting, Cllr Donna Harris, Leader of the Lib Dem Council Group, said:

“Everyone deserves a warm, safe space to call home.

“It’s horrifying and heartbreaking to hear that some of Lambeth’s residents are living in fear of losing their most basic human needs because the council won’t consider basic ideas like spreading the cost of rising energy bills over several years. 

“There is an astonishing poverty of ambition from Lambeth’s Labour administration, who seem happy enough to let some of the borough’s poorest pay ‘flat rate’ energy bills which don’t encourage energy efficiency.

“The council needs a clear plan to retrofit homes with individual meters and boilers so residents can control their own costs.”