Anger about huge increases in district heating charges

Residents in Greendykes are calling on the UK Government to help as their heating costs have gone up by 500%.

Tommy Sheppard, MP for Edinburgh East is involved and has written to the government asking them to take urgent action to extend energy price caps for these residents whose homes are heated through district heating – which are now being charged at commercial rates.

Residents in Edinburgh East who receive their heat and hot water from district heating have experienced eye-watering energy bill increases on unit charges when the UK Government’s Energy Bills Discount Scheme concluded at the end of March.

Residents in one 2019 newbuild development in Greendykes, built by Places for People, have said bills having skyrocketed with some experiencing overnight price increases well in excess of £1,200 a year for heat and hot water alone.

The Edinburgh East MP said that the UK Government has repeatedly ignored SNP calls to close a loophole meaning residents getting their heat from district heating sources are not covered by the energy price cap that most households benefit from. The result has been that, following the ending of temporary UK Government support, energy bills for residents and businesses have skyrocketed since 1 April.

Mr Sheppard has written to The UK Government to seek an urgent update on district heating systems being charged at commercial, rather than domestic rates. This has meant residents who are part of district heating schemes fall into a loophole of the UK Government’s energy price cap, meaning price rises for them are not subject to the same controls.

He said: “Residents are worried and rightly angry about the impact of these eye-watering rises. It’s farcical that having done everything right, these residents now face bills well in excess of what they would be paying if they had an individual gas boiler. This defeats the entire point of low carbon energy schemes which are essential if we’re to continue to make progress on tackling climate change.

“The UK Government need to urgently bring district heating schemes under the same price protections as the rest of the energy market. It’s not right that energy companies continue to make a killing out of residents purely because of a technicality that the UK Government have been aware of for years and have done nothing to resolve.

“I’m demanding action from UK Ministers. They’ve been asleep at the wheel while residents in my constituency are suffering, they need to fix this now. What’s happening isn’t fair.” 

Local resident Claire who has lived in the development for the last four years said: “As of the 1st of April my provider has implemented a 500% increase in the price I pay per kWh from 5p to 26p – with no notice to myself or my neighbours.  I am now facing bills in excess of £200 a month for simple heating and hot water requirements.  

“This has put a huge financial strain on my budgeting, alongside the many other cost of living increases faced today.  As our home is served by district heating not only are we not protected by any price cap or regulations, we are also trapped to one provider with no option to shop around or swap tariffs, leaving myself and my neighbours forced to find five times the money to simply have warm showers and heat our homes.”